Is Incorporating Your Small Business Best For You?

There comes a point in time when every small business person contemplates on whether to incorporate their business or not. A lot of times small businesses start out sole proprietorships, and then become incorporated as the business expands and develops. Small business incorporating can be a difficult decision, and with this article you’ll gain a little bit of knowledge on the advantages and disadvantages.

There are many advantages to incorporating your small business, but limited liability is one of the biggest advantages. When you have sole proprietorship to the company all the liability of the company is on the owner. When incorporating the business, your only liability is to however much you invest in the company.

With sole proprietorship, all of your personal belongings, such as car and home, can be turned over to help pay the debt of the business. As a shareholder in the business, you have no responsibility whatsoever for the debts of the business, that is of course unless you give a guarantee.

Another advantage to incorporating a small business is the ability to raise money so much easier. With the ability to raise money much easier, this increases the odds of the corporation growing and expanding. Yes, you’re saying any sole proprietorship can borrow money and incur debt like any corporation. However, with a corporation you can sell shares and raise equity capital, which is a big advantage in that you generally don’t have to repay equity capital and it has no interest.

There are many tax advantages with becoming a corporation that you can take a look at as well. Some of these advantages include income splitting, potential tax deferral and more. Along with the reasons above, a corporation can have an unlimited life. The life of a corporation is not dependent on particular individuals, but the company as a whole. With this, the company has the opportunity of lasting forever just as long merges with another company or goes bankrupt.

Now that I’ve buttered up the idea of incorporating your small business, let’s take a look at some of the possible negatives.

As you incorporate your small business, there now will be two tax returns to file each year, one for your personal income and one for the corporation. This may not be a huge deal, but unlike a sole proprietorship a corporation cannot deduct its losses from the personal income of the owner. Plus, having another tax return is the last thing another business owner wants to deal with.

As a corporation is much larger and more complex then a small business, therefore the cost to create one is much higher. Just to set up the corporation will cost a lot more, then you have to tack on the increased maintenance fees, accounting fees, and more.

As with everything else, a larger business means more paperwork that must be taken care of. Corporations must keep a minute book, which contains the corporate bylaws and minutes from corporate meetings. Reports and tax returns must be completed neatly and in a timely fashion. All of the business bank accounts and records have to be kept separate from personal accounts and assets. That may sound like a load, but that is just the start of the increased paperwork that comes with the territory of incorporating your small business.

While there are many advantages and disadvantages to incorporating your small business, the decision ultimately goes to you. It is a decision that could make or break your business, therefore much more research is recommended. However, small business incorporating should be a thing that suites you and others associated with you best.

direct mail
Direct Mail Marketing Techniques for Insurance Sector

Aim to make your insurance direct mail stand out from the crowd by adding personalization. Most prospects receive five to seven mailers each day. By including a personalized message in your letter, you increase your chances of success. Consider using Google street view images and hand-addressing envelopes. These two methods can help improve the open rates of your mail. Here are other ways to improve your open rates: Include a QR Code or variable handwritten font note on your postcards. You can also add a picture of your company’s location in your letters or use a Google street view image on your website.

Direct Mail Marketing For Insurance Agents

When choosing which type of mail to send, consider personalizing images and texts. Personalizing your mail pieces can help increase your response rate. For instance, if you want to attract new parents, you can send personalized insurance direct mail pieces to new parents and adjust the rates accordingly. A personal message can go a long way to attracting new customers. If you are an independent insurance agent, consider adding a presence on social media, such as Facebook and Twitter.

The quality of your service is also important. If you can make it easy for prospective customers to fill out the forms, more of them will move on to the next step. For example, GEICO is a leading car insurance company in the United States. The company offers a special discount to the Indiana University Alumni Association. Similarly, you can offer a discount on your insurance policies for those who have graduated from a nearby college.

Another way to improve your response rate is to use affinity marketing techniques. Using relevant themes can help you stand out from the crowd and make your direct mail more effective. You can include things like a QR code or insurance comparison calculator, which can provide instant access to quote details. A compelling call to action is also crucial when creating insurance direct mail. A simple, direct message is likely to be effective in getting customers to buy something. But make sure you focus on delivering benefits that are specific to your customers.

When designing your insurance direct mail, you must remember that consumers are often skeptical and may not be interested in your products or services. However, the right piece of mail can convert even the most skeptic to an interested customer. If you can make a personal connection with a consumer, your marketing efforts will be more successful. When it comes to healthcare, 70 percent of consumers prefer healthcare messages sent through direct mail to advertisements in newspapers and on television.

Your insurance direct mail should be personal. People respond to personalized messages, which can only be found in the postal system. For example, you can tailor your message to your customers’ interests. You can target your insurance direct mail based on demographics or neighborhood. For instance, if you focus on insurance, you can use every door and carrier routes in a particular area. By making the insurance direct mail more personal, you’ll increase your chances of closing a sale.

A good insurance direct mail can be a trusted source for consumers. A personalized letter can help increase the chances of a prospect opening the mailer. In addition to these benefits, insurance direct mailing also requires careful list hygiene. If you’re not sure how to go about this, consult an expert and hire a marketing agency to handle this for you. It’s essential to consider the demographics of your target audience and the age of your prospective customers.

Conclusion

In addition to insurance, Target Leads is another great insurance direct mail vendor. Despite its name, this vendor specializes in insurance and seems to focus on the insurance market. This company’s video explains its service in a simple manner. It is middle of the road in terms of pricing and its website is helpful for running counts. Aside from that, Target Leads is an excellent choice for your insurance direct mailing. You’ll also have access to their client database.

A perfect insurance direct mail campaign should include a personalized lead with the right amount of details. A lead with less specifics will result in a higher response rate, but the quality of the response will be lower. In this case, the insurance direct mail will be more likely to get a positive response than a generic one. Using a lead like this will increase the chances of receiving a favorable reply. The best insurance direct mail is one that will generate responses and leads.

Steps to becoming a web host reseller

You’ve decided to get a reseller web hosting account to resell web space. What now? Here’s a step-by-step guide.

1. Choose the platform you want to use.

More open source software programs are available for Linux than for Windows, which makes Linux less expensive. While most programs (Perl, PHP, Flash, etc.) run on both platforms, a few run on only Windows or Linux. A site that requires ASP or MS Access, for example, requires a Windows platform.

2. Choose the control panel you want to use.

Control panels for websites range from very basic to loaded with features. As a reseller, you’ll also have a control panel for you to set up and control hosting accounts.
In Choosing Your Hosting Automation Software, we compare several control panels, all of which offer good features for web host resellers.

3. Choose your web host.

The web host company that you choose for your reseller account is a key decision — your business success depends on the quality of your host. Factors to consider when choosing a web host for a reseller account:

The platform and control panel
Account features
The company’s reputation — search for online reviews by clients
The record of server uptime
The level of support — how fast does tech support respond to support requests, especially time-sensitive ones?
Flexibility — does the web host have packages that allow you to upgrade when your needs increase? Will they customize plans if necessary?
How long the web host has been in business — while a new web host may be very good, many web hosting businesses fail within the first year
Price — consider what is included in the price
Get Started with reseller hosting. http://www.websitesource.com

4. Set up your hosting plans and prices

Divide your bandwidth by your disk space to find out the ratio of bandwidth to disk space that you can offer. Take into account any ratios that differ if you upgrade to a larger package, and then base your packages on that ratio.
For pricing, consider what competitors charge, but also factor in any additional services you’ll be offering.

5. Develop a business website

You have three main choices for website development:
Create a website using an existing website template http://www.websitesource.com/clientarea/reseller_website_templates.shtml

Hire a designer or a design company to design your site for you http://design.websitesource.com/design/elements_custom-work.php
If you have web design skills, design your site yourself
Include all the information that clients will want to know about your services and company.

6. Make your site e-commerce ready

To be able to accept payments for hosting accounts, you’ll to set up:
An SSL certificate
A merchant account
A payment gateway

7. Set up a helpdesk

A helpdesk allows clients to contact you with support requests and you to track and respond to those requests.

8. Set up billing

With an automated billing system, clients are billed and payments are registered with little effort on your part. Most billing software licenses are priced per month or per year, with some billing software companies offering prices for lifetime licenses.

Some popular billing and payment processing systems:
Modernbill http://www.modernbill.com/
ClientExec http://www.clientexec.com/
WHM.Autopilot http://www.whmautopilot.com/
Whois.Cart http://www.whoiscart.net/

When you choose a billing software program, check if it’s compatible with your server platform and if support is included.

9. Create a welcome email

After you set up hosting accounts for your clients, you’ll need to send them a welcome email. Include in this email:

A confirmation of the plan details
The nameserver names
A username and temporary password
A link to the control panel
Links to your knowledge base / FAQ and to your helpdesk

10. Market your website

Submit your site to search engines. Tell your family, friends, and business acquaintances about your website. Include a link to it in your signature line in outgoing emails. But don’t stop there — market your website http://www.marketingcontrolpanel.com via incoming links, advertising, newsletters, and special offers.