Bplans.com has 9 business calculators for you to use absolutely free of charge.  HTML coding is also available so that you can post the calculators to your very own websites. You can use any of the following calculators as many times as you’d like:

1. Cash Flow Calculator
2. Investment Offering Calculator
3. Starting Costs Calculator
4. Discounted Cash Flow Calculator
5. Break Even Calculator
6. Conversion Rate Calculator
7. Email Marketing ROI Calculator
8. Direct Mail ROI Calculator
9. Pay Per Click ROI Calculator

But another area of marketing that’s very popular right now is something that we all want for our business, although it can be very challenging to accomplish. Every small business CEO wants good public relations (PR) for his or her company. Good PR can do wonders for a business - in particular a small business - because it has the power to reach customers through third-party credibility (something pure marketing can’t deliver).

Also, small business CEOs are notorious for watching the bottom line. And they should be. After all, we’re all in business to make as much money as possible while keeping costs down. Traditional marketing can get expensive quickly. And if you want to advertise on the radio or television, those costs can soar to tens of thousands of dollars each month on top of your other marketing costs.

PR is a much lower investment. Even if you make the decision to hire a PR firm at $5,000 per month (a reasonable entry-level investment) you will start to see some pretty good results as long as you hire a good PR firm, of course. This cost can pale in comparison to other marketing investments.

But believe it or not, why spend that $5,000 every month when you can do PR yourself on a much lower budget. Getting a reporter to do a story on your company isn’t a very difficult process if you know how to do it. Use the “BIG” three-step approach to get some great press coverage on a tiny shoestring budget.

1. Build your story

First you want to create a compelling story angle that will interest the news media. Look inside your company to find a few ideas. What’s new with your company? Who are your customers and why do they use your products/services? Do they have interesting reasons? Who are your employees? Do they have any fascinating stories to share about their experiences in working for you? Do you or any of your employees help out any charities? Is your company experiencing a shift in business because of a national trend (recession, environmental green movement, social media)? Are you running any special promotions for holidays or seasonal events (Thanksgiving, Valentine’s Day)? By answering some of these questions you’ll be able to identify some interesting stories to bring to the media. Keep in mind that the news media aren’t in the business of promoting you. It’s their job to write an informative story for their readers.

2. Investigate the media

Who do you want to cover your story? Read your local newspaper and watch the local television news to find reporters who typically cover stories that coincide with your angle. For example, if your story has a health or medical angle, find out who writes about health-related stories in your local newspaper. Go to your local bookstore and read through different magazines to identify publications and reporters you’d like to approach with your story. You don’t even have to buy a copy - simply sit there and browse trough a few editions.

3. Go after the reporters

Once you’ve identified which reporters you want to approach for your angle, read their stories often. Send them emails commenting on those stories so you can build a relationship with them. After you’ve built up a little bit of a relationship, send them an email saying you’d like to speak with them about a story of your own that may interest them. Or, if time is of the essence practice your best phone pitch that will get them interested in the story in a 15-second span and give them a call. Although you may feel intimidated, they won’t bite.

About The Guest Author:   John Sternal has been practicing PR for nearly 20 years. He is the co-creator of understandingmarketing.com small business Web site and author of the PR Toolkit for small business.

In contrast, tactics (the “how we’re going to do what we’re supposed to do” - the execution element) is typically thought of as the grunt work, relegated to and performed by the rest of the organization. Yet, it’s these tactics - the focused activities performed by every person, every day - which are the difference between organizations that perform predictably and consistently - and those that don’t.

It shouldn’t surprise anyone, then, that:

* Less than 10% of even well-formulated strategies are successfully executed
* Only 5% of employees understand their organization’s strategy
* Only 3% of executives think their company is successful at executing their strategies
* And that “excellence of execution” is the #1 top challenge of CEOs worldwide

Strategy forumation (selecting the right long-term objectives and envisioning a way to get there) — AND consistent execution — are the greatest sets of skills any organization can develop. And, successful organizations need BOTH skills.

BOTTOMLINE: Building an organization that can develop strategy, plan (formulating tactics) and execute is not easy. Developing and executing a strategy that’s balanced in growth and profitability is extremely difficult - and is therefore rare. And what is rare, is considered valuable. It’s time to seek out a revolutionary new approach to the oldest and most difficult challenge in business - one that focuses on the much harder of the two (execution).

About The Guest Author: Skip Reardon is the Director of Digital Marketing and Social Networking for Six Disciplines. A 27-year marketing and communications veteran, he’s also responsible for branding, marketing campaigns, web content and he’s also the editor of the Be Excellent blog.

If you’re like many U.S. businesses, you will be playing catch up to where you were before you cut staff and put projects on hold to reduce costs.

You don’t want to be behind when the economy begins strengthening and coming out of recession. Many companies are going through tough times right now, but the smart ones are positioning themselves for growth so they are ready when the economy recovers.

Four Problems You Don’t Want to Have to Deal With

What happens when companies grow before they have the processes and technology in place to support the growth?

1.  Manual processes require a revenue-proportional number of additional employees to process.

Adding 25% more employees for every 25% increase in revenue gets expensive. Sometimes employee counts grow even faster as additional personnel are brought on for quality assurance (a.k.a. error correction before the customer sees it).

2.  Manual processes begin to break as volume increases.

Having a core group of employees familiar with each customer’s specific rules works great until you have to double the staff. It quickly becomes impossible to educate the larger group on all the intricacies and special handling for each customer.

3.  Processing time increases as volume increases.

As exceptions handling and extra review time increases, the time to process a new customer order, process a lab request or bill a customer increases. Besides creating customer dissatisfaction, you may be slowing down your receivables and other income.

4.  Systems no longer support the level of service now required.

Systems may not be flexible enough to support the new service or product requirements you offer, or require your staff to create workarounds to “force” the systems to work. New customers may require levels of availability, particularly larger customers and those in regulated industries (health care, financials, etc.).

Four Effective Solutions You Can Put into Place Now

1.  Take advantage of this slower time.

Streamline your processes while your employees have down time. They can focus now, but once it starts to get busy they won’t be available. Even if you can’t commit to a project timeline, staff can start writing down unique situations systems don’t handle well.

2.  Assess your current situation.

An outside third party perspective that is familiar with operational and technology standards can help you develop a strategy tailored to your business strategy. A frequent bonus is a reduction in spending on some items, which can then fund new investments to support your business goals.

3.  Focus on software projects now.

Small and mid-sized businesses can rarely afford to dedicate resources to these efforts, yet in downturns, more employee time is available which contributes to the success of these projects. If you need new software, look into Software as a Service (SaaS) which doesn’t require a big capital outlay.

4.  Evaluate new infrastructure options.

If your technology infrastructure (servers, network, PCs) is expensive, unreliable or isn’t as available as you need it, review your options. It may be the time to align with an outsourcer. It is also a great time to negotiate discounts with existing vendors.

When the economy is tough, businesses often focus on the short term and stop preparing for growth. Instead, focus on the long view in parallel with managing the day-to-day realities of your business. Begin to implement these four quick, effective solutions now to get your company ready and positively positioned for the coming upturn in the economy. You’ll also have the extra bonus of focusing employees on a positive effort rather than all the negative news.

About The Guest Author: Laura Pettit Rusick helps small and mid-sized businesses enable growth, reduce costs and improve efficiency by optimizing business processes and technology. For those interested in benefiting from business process efficiency projects, sign up to receive the PDF “Ten Critical Success Factors for Optimizing Business Processes“. Laura’s website is http://www.optsolutionsinc.com.

Yesterday @smallbiztrends tweeted a link to this extensive list of 100 Awesome Blogs For Your Business Education.  This is one of the positive aspects of using Twitter.  You have the opportunity to come across some very useful things.

Whether you’re in business school or are just learning the ropes by trial and error, getting a little extra help and insight into the business world can be a great help in your success. The web can be a great, inexpensive way to do that, allowing business professionals present and future to learn and get advice from those with experience and expertise in the field.

There is no doubt that you will find these blogs to be a great resource for small business information.  That is why I’ve decided to share the list with you today.  Enjoy and congratulations to Small Business Trends for being included on the list!

1. Establish the organization’s top three objectives. This means the significant few, not the important many. (This is what we at Six Disciplines refer to as Vital Few Objectives- VFOs). Once identified, these vital few objectives must be clear, concise, measurable, obtainable - and assigned to one individual to be responsible for achieving.

2. Assign each of the objectives to a specific team member.

3. Ask each team member what resources he or she needs to win. To help people win, team leaders must remove the barriers or roadblocks that stand in the way. Do this by having each team member identify three things they need to accomplish each objective. Have them put it in writing.

4. Agree on what the team leader will do to help. Have the team leader meet individually with each team member to clarify the barriers and agree on what’s needed to achieve the objective and who will be responsible for making it happen. In all likelihood, the leader will assume some responsibility. Why? Because you’re responsible to people, not for them. Being responsible to people means helping them get what they need to win.

5. Reward results. When objectives are achieved, ensure that recognition and rewards are disproportionate and highly visible. Those who achieve the most get recognized and rewarded the most-and everyone should know that.

About The Guest Author: Skip Reardon is the Director of Digital Marketing and Social Networking for Six Disciplines. A 27-year marketing and communications veteran, he’s also responsible for branding, marketing campaigns, web content and he’s also the editor of the Be Excellent blog.

One motivational myth: Ignoring Conflict

Few people, especially in the professional world, enjoy conflict. Most bosses and employees alike would rather “let something go” or “sweep it under the rug” than make an issue out of it. Too many managers are concerned about being liked that they don’t fulfill their responsibilities to catch problems quickly. Not addressing an employee’s problematic behavior doesn’t help any one.

Nobody ever benefits when an employer or manager ignores conflict within an office environment.  If a problem employee is not dealt with properly, it’s usually one of the better employees that the business ends up losing.  Afterall, a problem very rarely corrects itself.  Deal with the issue right away before it gets out of hand and other employees end up frustrated.

This Forbes contest consists of several rounds.  For the initial round, business owners who apply need to submit a 500 word write-up on their business.  Entries will be judged and 20 semi-finalists will be chosen.  Those semi-finalists will be required to provide more information along with a 30 second elevator pitch  video.  The field will then be narrowed down to 5 finalists.  After the final 5 provide detailed business plans and give live presentations in front of the judges, the grand prize winner will be chosen.

Unfortunately, this contest is only open to United States residents over the age of 18.  Complete contest details, information and entry form can be found here. Good luck to anyone who chooses to enter!

In order to improve effectiveness and efficiency, you must understand how your time is being used. With all of the technological advances over the past two decades, we’re continually forced to do things “better, faster, cheaper.” In other words, all of these advances have taught us how to be more efficient.

But - have any of these advances (spreadsheets, email, cell phones, IM, etc.) made us more effective?

The difference between the two?

* Being efficient is essentially doing things right.
* Being effective is essentially doing the right things.

It’s not enough to just do things right - we also need to balance it with doing the right things, doing the right things based on their priority.

As Dr. Stephen Covey once said: “The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.”

BOTTOMLINE: Take a good look at your calendar: Are you spending time on the most important things? Are you spending the appropriate amount of time on those activities that are the highest priority? How do you know?

If you’re not tracking how you spend your time, how will you ever know?

The best way is to have an individual plan (we recommend quarterly) - of daily activities that you’re responsible for, which support the organization’s goals, initiatives and projects. Track your time against these projects daily, and review weekly. The goal is to spend the most time on the most important activities that get you closer to achieving the organization’s goals..

Now, consider this: multiply this daily/weekly time-tracking activity times the number of people in your organization. You’ll be amazed at how much more productivity and results you’ll begin to see (or, very frustrated, by how much time is actually wasted on non-productive, non-essential activities…)

So…. if you’re looking to improve your performance (or the performance of your organization) - how can you possibly improve, if you don’t track your time!

About The Guest Author: Skip Reardon is the Director of Digital Marketing and Social Networking for Six Disciplines. A 27-year marketing and communications veteran, he’s also responsible for branding, marketing campaigns, web content and he’s also the editor of the Be Excellent blog.