Wasteful Spending & Social Media

I was recently asked if spending money on buying book reviews or social media followers was worth it. My immediate answer was "no"! There is no reason I could ever justify spending money to get numbers or fake reviews for the purpose of promotion. Think about this, who are you promoting to? Buying fake book reviews is the worst thing anyone can do. Here's why, the people buying your book really don't like it. They are getting paid to write nice things. And, while you can have all the fake nice things written about your book, 80% of people buy books on Amazon based on a combination of the cover and the summery- not the reviews!

Buying fake social media followers is also a waste. If you load up your Twitter page with 100,000 followers- it seems impressive, but it doesn't equate to actual engagement - which is the entire point of social media. Think about it like this; I go into a store and I pay everyone in the store a dollar to try my new food product and like my Twitter page. So, the people in the store like me on Twitter with a follow and take a bite out of the food product. Maybe, just maybe, .05% actually buy the food product that day. Now, in two weeks I send out a promotion for that product to the people who followed me on Twitter. Do you think I will have a return on investment from that campaign? Nope! I paid people to be engaged. They actually don't like or care about my product and, chances are, will unfollow me in the near future. So, I just wasted a bunch of dollar bills and my time!

I can't tell you about the clients I see who actually buy promotions on Facebook. Yes, their numbers skyrocket, but they never see an actual conversion when it comes to brand loyalty or actual sales. My point here is that paying to get a customer to like your page or like your book is a simple waste of money. You have better chances of turning a paid event sponsorship into real ROI vs. converting a paid social media lead.

Until tomorrow,
Twyla Garrett

How to Get a Business Loan.

Obtaining a business loan in today's economic culture is challenging. You might have perfect credit, but that doesn't mean you will get a great rate- if a loan at all. I've complied some tips to improve our chances for getting a business loan.

Start off by knowing your debt ratio. One of the most basic measures of a company’s creditworthiness is the Debt Service Coverage ratio, which shows a firm’s ongoing ability to keep in control both debt and interest. The Debt Service Coverage Ratio, defined as EBITDA divided by a firm’s current portion of long-term debt and interest expense, is an extremely important metric for predicting default.

Review your net sales. If sales are low you have to consider one of two options. First, increasing profitable sales and lowering production costs – take time to identify and implement. "Lowering production costs often involves finding ways to get raw materials or key services more cheaply or to use less of them. Or it can mean identifying new, more efficient methods of producing a good or providing a service," according to Karen Berman and Joe Knight.

Finally, If you can show less debt and less spending, you have a better chance for getting a business loan versus a person with perfect credit but a high amount of debt.

Twyla