Article by John Hoff

Social media marketing is basically the act of making use of blogs, forums, and other social media tools and websites (click the ones in the picture above) to market your services or product. You don’t have to be a computer-wiz to comment on other’s articles, like this one, and leave a link to your site below your name. You also don’t have to be a computer pro in order to participate in an online forum.

Marketing Differences

There are major differences between how social media marketing and traditional marketing work and how you use them.

Traditional Marketing

In traditional marketing you typically blast your audience with some sort of sales pitch. It might be a TV commercial or an ad you placed in some entrepreneurial magazine. The problem with advertising on billboards, TV, in newspaper ads, etc., is that it’s basically a shot in the dark that anyone is going to listen to you. You try and place your ad where your audience may be (i.e. put your recipe book commercial in a slot during a cooking show on the Food Network) but how many people are really listening to your commercial?

How would it make you feel if you knew after you passed away everything you ever owned ended up in court for years locked in a heated family debate.

Your children have children and still everything you wanted to pass along to your heirs after your death is still locked up in court. Is there a workaround so this doesn’t happen?

Yes! It’s called a Living Trust.

Exactly what is a Revocable Living Trust?

A living trust is a legal document which allows an individual to transfer ownership of titled and personal property from their name to what’s called a trust.

Once property is transferred to the trust, the trust becomes the legal owner. Even though the individual no longer “legally” owns the property, they can remain in control of all assets in the trust as long as they are alive. That is why it is called a “living” trust as it is created during one’s lifetime and “revocable” because it can be changed or rewritten as often as desired and could be revoked entirely at any time before one’s death.

So you want to start a business and it’s time to start your business plan. How do you write one? What must you include in it? Where can you find help? Read on!

The Parts of a Business Plan

1. Executive Summary
2. Market Analysis
3. Company Description
4. Business Organization
5. Marketing
6. Products / Services Offered
7. Funding Requests
8. Financials
9. Appendix

I. Executive Summary

This is probably the most important part of your business plan because it’s the first part a reader, like a loan officer, will read. Although it’s first in your document, it should be written last. This is because you want to hack out all the details in your plan and then summarize it all. You wouldn’t write the summary first and then your document.