University of La Verne SBDC Small Biz Blog

By Joshua Botello Transcript: In this video, I’ll show how to keep your business running using Factoring.  I'm Josh from the University of La Verne Small Business Development Center. Here at the SBDC, we provide small business owners with free one on one consulting and business tip videos just like this one. So if you are new here, consider subscribing to our channel. Introduction If you are a business owner who extends terms for your customers to pay later, then you may have run into times where you run low on money to keep the business going. If you need cash quickly to run the business but are still waiting on your customers to pay their invoices, then a factor may be the one to help you out. In this video, I’ll explain what a factor is, how factoring works and the benefits of using a Factor. What is a Factor? So what is a factor? A factor is an intermediary lender who provides your business with working capital in order to keep it running.  The factor provides a short-term...

by Joshua Botello Picking a professional service provider like a lawyer, accountant, marketer, or IT service is such a confusing task. I mean they're all good, right? Not so fast! Picking the right professional for your business is similar to picking a partner for your business. Since you are going to be spending a lot of money on these services you want to make the right decision the first time. Your search may sound daunting but if you break it into these four steps, the process couldn't be easier. So let’s take a look at the 4 simple steps to pick your professional service provider. Start Your Search The first step to picking the right service provider is starting your search. Don’t know anybody? Check with friends and family first. These are the people who are closest to you and whose opinion you will trust most. Check with those who are business owners themselves, as those will be the ones who have similar needs to your own.  The next place to search is your local Chamber...

by Joshua Botello This article was originally published on LinkedIn here . If you are looking to start a business blog and platforms like WordPress.org look too complicated to start up, the built-in article tool for LinkedIn may be what you need. Not only is it easy to get started but you can reach your audience where they already are. Here is a quick guide to getting started with blogging on LinkedIn.  First things first The first thing is you will need to create your LinkedIn profile, but since you are reading this, you are already on LinkedIn. However, if you really need to know how to get started, here’s a quick refresher. Go to LinkedIn.com and click sign up. Enter your email. You are ideally going to use a business email or personal email if you don’t have a company one. Fill out all the information about you. This will be professionally useful when you start writing and this will establish your credibility when you publish articles. Once you have your profile c...

Mighty River Wellness   www.mightyriverwellness.com   Mighty River Wellness is a fertility acupuncture, and integrative health practice in Los Angeles, CA. Beck Hoehn LAc initially came to the University of La Verne SBDC for assistance in applying for the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) due to the Coronavirus Pandemic. "When the world shut down all the issues and nightmares I stressed out about as weaknesses in our business all became true in a matter of moments. It was glaringly obvious in the middle of a pandemic that I needed to recession-proof my business. I had NO IDEA how to do any of that. My friend recommended I seek guidance from the SBDC,” Hoehn said.     During the first few months, Beck began working with Jeffrey Wolf and junior consultant Annie. They both provided her with foundational business, growth strategies, and "how to survive" basics. That knowledge inspired her to move forward and develop a strategy to increase business.  Worki...

by Joshua Botello For most business owners live streaming seems like an impossibility because of the tech and quality needed to pull it off. However, basic live streaming is as simple as having an account on social media and clicking a few buttons. So in this video, I'll show you how to live stream on any budget and stay to the end for tips on getting the best quality for your live content. Let's begin our journey with live streaming from your phone. It’s the easiest to do and most people have phones and apps to live stream from anywhere. The biggest caveats will be the location you're streaming from, your service provider, and your signal strength. But with that said, Let’s get streaming Facebook (iPhone/Android) On Facebook, log into your account and in the post section, tap "live" and the live stream settings will come up. You can set who your audience is like friends only, public or private; then add a description, and when you're ready tap “Start Live Vi...

by Joshua Botello Digital marketing has been alluring for small business owners to leverage the technology that larger corporations have been using for the last few years. Many small business owners looking to jump into the foray without quite knowing what digital marketing is. Small business owners may not understand marketing as a whole, so if they want to migrate or expand into digital marketing it tends to become a technological mess. It usually means cleaning the slate and rebuilding effective marketing starting from scratch. In this article, we’ll cover the 4 Aspects of a digital marketing strategy to build digital dominance. What is Digital Marketing? Digital marketing is essentially traditional marketing in a digital space. With digital marketing, the idea is to leverage online platforms and properties like websites, blogs, social media, video, live streams, webinars, and email marketing. Many of the fundamental marketing principles such as goals, target markets, marketing chan...

by Joshua Botello At first glance, Twitter may seem like a neverending wall of noise, but if you are serious about using Twitter as a marketing channel, then you need to know how to properly set up your account. So let’s get into a step-by-step guide for starting your business on Twitter. And stay till the end for pro tips to leverage Twitter for your business Set up  First, head to twitter.com and click sign up to get your account started. Type in your Twitter username called a handle then your email and your own birthdate even for business. Now that your account is created you need to build out your brand on Twitter.  To do this, you need to add a bio that explains your business, A profile picture, this can be a logo or other brand image, and finally a header photo of your location or other scenic picture. How To Use Twitter Now that you have all that done let me show you how Twitter works. Posts on Twitter are called tweets and have a limit of 280 characters. These can be t...

by Joshua Botello If you avoided using Twitter for your business up until now, let's start with some numbers: There are 48.35 million monthly active Twitter users in the US. 38% of Twitter users are between the ages of 18 and 29, 26% of users are 30-49 years old. 56% of Twitter users $50,000 and more in a year. 80% of Twitter users are affluent millennials. If you haven't started using Twitter because it is just a “never-ending wall of noise” and you don’t “get it”. Fear not. Here are 10 ways you can easily use Twitter for your business. #1 Promote Your Blog If you aren't blogging for your business. You should consider starting immediately. If you are, congratulations, it's time to amp that up on Twitter. You can promote your blog with several strategic tweets that are scheduled out to give your blog the maximum traction it needs. How? You can schedule out 5 tweets in this example from Neil Patel , to get eyes on your blog and keep it fresh witho...

by Joshua Botello Are you looking to build an audience on Facebook for your business? Whether you have been in business for years or you are just starting out, figuring out how to use social media to grow your business is going to be a challenge. So here is a list of 4 tips you can use to build your following on Facebook.  Tip #1 Contact Existing Customers Tip number 1 is to Contact your existing customers: If you're currently and have existing customers who are also on Facebook, you want to let them know once you join. You can do this a few different ways by putting a Facebook like button on your website that connects to your business page so they know they can connect with you there.  If you have an existing email list let them know you are on Facebook and have a follow button in the email as an easy call to action to click.  If you have a brick and mortar location, post your Facebook page name somewhere visible for the customer to follow you and get all the latest info...

By Joshua Botello The world of grants is a hazy one, especially for the uninitiated. To outsiders, grants seem to be free money floating around that people are willing to just hand over and are ridiculously easy to get, but difficult to find (unless you know where to look). If by some miracle, one of those previous statements might actually be true (uh, no), the world of grants and business financing is confusing and difficult. There is a lot of information and misinformation in the world, so let's dispel the myths and uncover the truth about grants. But first... What exactly is a Grant? A grant is one of many forms of federal, state, county, city, corporate, or foundation funding. Within the federal government (the largest grant funder), Federal financial assistance is a broad term for the various ways the U.S. government distributes resources to eligible recipients. Simply put, a grant is any money that funds ideas and projects to provide public services and/or stimulate the ec...