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Avoiding Unnecessary Banking Fees In Your Small Business

I hate fees. I hate them with such a passion it makes my head spin. I hate them so much that I spend more time managing my bank accounts then I do managing my email accounts (unheard of in today’s world).

But, I have not paid a bank fee in over a decade.

Many years ago, before attending graduate school, I worked as a Finance Examiner. In this position, my team and I would go into financial institutions and conduct the annual or 18 month FDIC or NCUA federal deposit insurance examination. The goal was to ensure that all financial institutions that handled other people’s money (their depositors) were safe and sound.

Now this was before the major bank mergers that took place in the late 1990s. When we examined the fee accounts of these institutions – we referred to them as "unearned income" accounts. In fact, many bank ledgers even labeled their fee accounts this way – unearned income.

What this account title spelled out is that most banks or financial institutions did not really have to do much of anything to generate fee income. They did not have to underwrite loans for the income, solicit new deposits for the income or even make risky investment for the income. They just had to assess fees onto their customers – simple, easy revenue with no recourse.

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Google Loves To Make Changes But Do They Do More Harm Than Good?

The recent Google changes to their algorithms has actually hurt my online business. I know that Google has every right to make changes whenever and wherever they want.

But, it is such a pain to keep up with while still trying to do all the other things that us small business owners have to do day-in and day-out.

I just wish that they would limit their changes, explain them better and not hurt businesses that compiled with the last change only to be penalized by the new changes.

Now that I got that off my chest and can get off my own pity-pot, I recently came across this great article that outlines some of the most recent Google changes and gives some tips on what your business could do to 1) comply with the new rules and 2) get your ranking back if your business has been hurt by the recent changes.

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The Real Effects Of Wage Hikes

Just last month, Santa Fe New Mexico raised their city wide minimum wage again – again - as part of their Living Wage initiate – which adjusts their minimum wage to the CPI index of Western states.

Sound good right? Maybe not. Santa Fe’s cost of living is already 18% higher than the national average – thus, this is why the city feels it should raise the minimum wage – allowing these workers to earn enough to cover their everyday living expenses. Sound good right? Maybe not.

One of the reasons that Santa Fe has such a high cost of living is their high minimum wage. If the city raises wages, the local businesses will raise prices; 1) to cover their increased costs and 2) if their customers have more money, they will raise prices to meet their level of income.

I can almost guarantee that in a few months – nobody, not even those who receive the higher wages, will be any better off.

The city also claims that with their continued increases in minimum wages, they are keeping their unemployment rate lower than the national average. But, in my opinion (and others) their unemployment has nothing to do with the rate of pay. The city raises the minimum wage and some (many) businesses have to cut back on employment or they just simply move their businesses out of the area (out of the city limits or to another city). When these businesses leave or cut back their employment, their employees either follow them or they move to other areas where there is work. Thus, less people looking for jobs in those high wage areas.

This is in part shown by the huge number of empty commercial spaces in and around the city. Thus, it would seem that the increase in minimum wage is drawing only those minimum wage workers and employers that only provide minimum wage.

Raising the minimum wages – sounds good right?

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Taking Care Of Your Online Business

I have been surfing the web a lot lately. In part to stay on top of the news regarding small business and small business financing and in part because I just like doing it.

However, the web (or at least some sites) just don’t seem the same anymore. Now, I know that new information and new content is being propagated more and more each day due to the ease of putting every though possible on the Internet.

But, just because it is easy does not mean that it doesn’t have to be right.

Just yesterday, I came across a new website that required the user to register to access. The content appeared interesting enough to get me to register.

However, the registration form just went on and on – far too much information than I really wanted to give or really had the patience for. But, I plowed through it.

Then, after hitting the submit button, the page returned a 501 error (internal service error).

After all that – really?

But, it did not end there. Just this morning I was doing a little online shopping. Took me a while to find the exact product I was looking for – it really took quite some time. But, having found what I wanted I went to check out.

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No Cost National Small Business Marketing

For most small businesses, marketing is their key to success. If your potential customers don’t know who you are and what you provide (how you can help them) then they will never be your customers - period. Without customers, you have no business.

Most small businesses either throw a lot of money at marketing – be it in print, on TV or online – or spend countless hours of their time trying to brand their business or at least generate some customer interest in who they are (note: marketing is designed to educate customers to get them in the door – or on your website).

Yet, the vast majority of these businesses, regardless of how much time or money they spend, fall short – really short – by either missing their target, missing their message or just simply being passed over by their targeted market – resulting in a status quo level of growth and not the big hit they would like to get from all that marketing effort.

Usually, to really hit the main stream, a business would have to luck out and make a big hit – like getting an article written about them or picked up in a national magazine or in a national newspaper, getting mention on a popular TV or news show or having a self-made video go viral.

The problem with luck marketing (getting picked up or going viral) is that it is out of the hands of the small business. You just have to hope that something you are doing eventually works.

Not so fast!

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