7 Key Strategies That You Must Learn From Apple’s Marketing

Have you ever looked at a really successful brand or person – a celebrity, say, or a big company – and wondered, “How on earth do they do it?”

Apple is one of those brands for me. Almost everything the company puts out succeeds. The company has enjoyed almost unparalleled revenue growth from 2004 to 2020 — $8 billion to $2,274 billion. That’s astounding.

But Apple’s success isn’t just a matter of making a lot of money, or selling a lot of products. How many brands that have completely changed the game in their niches the way Apple has?

Not only that, but Apple’s done it several times over, despite some strong criticism from the naysayers. The iPod, the iPhone, the iPad–all of these products pretty much revolutionized their respective market “space.” Their success is a direct result of their marketing strategies.

Apple’s marketing mix creates raving fans who stand in line for hours and hours on end, just to get the first iteration of any new product the minute it’s released throughout social media.

Apple does what it does so well that there are whole websites out there devoted to nothing but Apple products and Apple marketing. Even high-end journalistic publications like The Atlantic write endlessly about the company, dissecting what it does and how it does it.

Apple goes way beyond the “computer brand” label — they create products for their target market, loyal customers that believe make these products life better, easier, more fun, and cooler.

How on earth do they do it?

Well, design and utility are just two of the reasons behind Apple’s success and certainly give it a competitive advantage.

But, more importantly for you and me, Apple’s secrets for transforming casual purchasers into brand ambassadors can be applied to just about any business in any niche or industry.

In this article, I’m going to reveal seven pillars of Apple’s world-famous marketing mix that you can adapt for your own business. 

1. Rethink the Need for Advertising

It’s tempting to drop lots of cash on PPC ads with Google or Facebook when you want to increase your sales revenue. But, Apple knows that’s not always necessary.

In fact, Apple relies most on two completely different strategies: product placement (especially with celebrities and in popular shows) and the buzz created by positive reviews in the media.

This secret was revealed in Apple’s patent litigation with Samsung, believe it or not:

key strategies you can learn from apple screenshot

Even if you don’t have Apple’s resources and budget, you can still take advantage of this approach to increase your market share. But, you may be asking yourself “How could I possible implement this Apple marketing secret in my own business?”

Well, it may not be possible to put your product in the hands of a Kardashian, or on the set of a popular TV show.

But, you can absolutely approach insiders and influencers. If you persuade an influencer that your product or service is worthwhile and relevant to their audience, they’ll share it with their followers.

Another way to use this Apple secret is to embrace a free trial program. Offer a free trial of your service or product, in exchange for a positive testimonial.

If a free trial of your product isn’t feasible, then get in touch with your existing satisfied customers and ask for a positive testimonial or review.

Publish those testimonials on your site. This isn’t a difficult component of your marketing mix to develop.

I’ve been publishing testimonials from my satisfied clients on this site for some time now, and I can attest to the fact that they help persuade prospects to convert into clients and subscribers. You’ll see some of those testimonials on this very page.

Don’t forget to attribute each testimonial with an image or avatar, the person’s name, and a link back to their own website, if possible. This adds more social proof to the customer’s positive review of your brand and gives greater legitimacy to your target market.

You can also implement this winning Apple strategy by creating more case studies.

Nielsen research on consumer trust in marketing shows that 92% of consumers trust recommendations they get from friends and family, while 70% of shoppers trust opinions from other consumers that are published online, such as reviews.

Consider using this outline to create your case studies:

7 apple marketing strategies to try; create more case studies.

Last, but far from least, if you are going to launch a PPC ad campaign, make sure you go about it the smart way.

Choose your PPC network carefully; create a clean, well-written landing page with a clear call-to-action and make sure your ad copy and landing page are completely aligned.

If you need more help with PPC ads, the following resources will help:

2. Avoid Price Wars by Emphasizing Your Unique Value Proposition

Many entrepreneurs believe – falsely – that they have to compete on price. Nothing could be further from the truth.

In fact, competing on price can actually hurt your business.

Apple knows this and has never wavered on its pricing strategy. 

Dropping prices and competing on price leads to a “race to the bottom.” If you’ve ever looked at job boards for freelancers, you might see some strange things. For some sites, the going rate for a blog post is $10, or even less!

This might sound like a great idea, but it’s really short-sighted when developing market share. “You get what you pay for” has never been more true than when businesses and freelancers try to underbid each other. Content marketing requires quality and it will be hard to get that for dirt cheap rates.

Your $10 post is almost certainly going to be poorly written, with no exclusive research or data to back up opinions. And, that post could simply be regurgitated from someone else’s site – or even outright copied, word for word. 

Even Copyscape can’t protect you from junk content. The foundation of content marketing is quality content as the cornerstone of a marketing mix.

That’s because no freelancer could survive on $10 per piece, unless they can create each piece in bulk. But your marketing strategy won’t survive if you don’t work on smart quality.

Instead, do what Apple does.

Apple focuses on their UVP (unique value proposition), which is beautiful design that works right out of the box with ever-smaller packaging. It’s a marketing strategy that gets juice throughout social media and is very much a competitive advantage for Apple and its market share.

What about cost? Well, let’s just say Apple is absolutely not competing on price! In fact, you’ll almost certainly pay more – sometimes a lot more – for an Apple product than you would for a competitor’s version of the same product.

Take some computers, for example – let’s say, two similar laptops, like the Microsoft Surface Pro, which costs about $900. Apple’s Macbook Pro, on the other hand, costs over $1,200.

How can Apple keep its fans with a pricing strategy so much higher than the competition?

It’s because Apple doesn’t view PCs as competition. Where others focus on a single killer feature through a variety of content marketing, Apple focuses on the entire product, and it shows.

In fact, Apple routinely earns its higher prices with top-of-the-line features and specifications.

You can implement this same strategy, no matter what niche or industry you’re in and regardless what your business model may be.

Whether you’re selling products or services, the key to making this strategy work for you is to make sure that you justify that higher price to capture your market share.

For SaaS companies, that could mean creating a higher degree of personal service or a full money-back guarantee.

For coaches or consultants, the competitive advantage could mean beautifully branded deliverables, in addition to work sessions or Skype calls.

You can also follow Apple’s example by offering a variety of options for your products and services at different price points. For instance, Apple’s Macbook laptop line offers larger screens and other enhanced features, for a higher price.

Yes, Apple is like the Rolls Royce of technology products with a retail store design that look more like a show room. Their customers are more than happy to pay that premium, because they know they’ll get their money’s worth.

3. Keep Your Marketing and Your Products Simple

More isn’t always better.

Apple understands that technology consumers often get overwhelmed. That’s true of other niches and industries, as well. Overwhelm can create a confusion in a marketing mix.

Apple reduces that consumer confusion by simplifying their web and sales copy. They completely eschew jargon or industry terms. Instead, they use simple, direct words and they continually stress the benefits that consumers absolutely need and will be thrilled by. This is part of their brilliance in content marketing; high tech without high tech terms.

This approach doesn’t confuse their customers with too much information. As Leonardo da Vinci said,

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

Apple keeps it simple and their customers love it giving them a loyalty with market share that is unprecedented.

Apple also follows through with this principle in the ads it does run. Remember those classic “Mac vs. PC” spots?

key strategies to learn from apple marketing apple vs pc

What Apple’s ads and marketing strategies convey isn’t specifications and features, but rather how the product can change your life and make it better.

But Apple doesn’t stop there. This is just step one in their marketing strategies.

They carry this philosophy of “simpler is better” through to their product lines, too. They don’t overwhelm prospective customers with too many choices, parameters or options.  An Apple retail store is designed for test driving products not grabbing boxes.

Even the products themselves are kept sleek and minimal, with simple color schemes and clean, uncluttered design. The names are short and easy to remember, including the “app store” that has made third party partners huge successes.

apple marketing tips design matters

How can you follow Apple’s marketing strategies in your own business to capture the biggest market share?

Start by making sure your website and blog have scannable content. Research shows that only 16% of website visitors read every word on a page. The vast majority of users – 79% of web users, in fact – simply scan the page. This is imperative in understanding your content marketing and potentially using social media with smaller bits of digestible date.

To make your content scannable, use bullet points to convey benefits. Make sure that your headings and subheadings are clear, vivid and surrounded by plenty of white space.  Easy to read means the target market will stay on the page and come back, increasing your market share.

Look at my homepage here, to see how I’ve done it:

apple marketing strategies to steal neil patel home page

You’ll notice in the above screenshot that I haven’t cluttered up the page with tons of text. There’s lots of white space surrounding the bullet points and only one image – mine – to call attention to the bullet points.

Don’t try to put every single feature of your product or service on the page.

Instead, focus on the most valuable UVP for each product.  Then, stress that.

One great example of this in action is Virgin Mobile’s phones page:

image13

Select a clean, minimalist design for your landing pages. Reduce clutter around the important sections of your page’s content, such as sidebars and widgets.  Then, the user’s eye is drawn to the product or copy itself.

Finally, if you have the budget, I’d recommend hiring a professional copywriter, especially on crucial product and services sales pages. It’s not easy to give enough information to trigger a conversion or a sale while still keeping that streamlined, simplified approach.

4. Know Your Audience and Talk to Them in Their Language

It’s not that Apple doesn’t mention product specifications and technical details at all. In fact, every product page on the Apple website does mention those things.

But, they put it below-the-fold. Visitors to Apple’s website first have to scroll past beautiful product images and large-font simple copy telling them about the product’s benefits.

Initially, Apple customers won’t find words like megabytes or gigahertz. They find words they know and understand:

  •  “edge to edge glass”
  •  “retina display”
  •  “LED backlighting”  

Apple knows its customers very well and has developed loyalty in their market share.  And, they know how to speak to them in the language that makes them feel comfortable, not overwhelmed and confused.

The products themselves are a marketing mix that show off their relevance to the way Apple’s customers actually live their lives. For instance…

  • The iPod isn’t just “a music player and storage device” – it lets you store hours of music in your pocket.
  • The iMac isn’t just “a computer” – it helps make your computing experience exciting and pleasurable.
  • The iPhone isn’t just “a smartphone” – it lets you put the power of an Apple computer in your phone.

Is your website copy speaking your prospects’ language? Creating a customer profile for each of your main audience segments is the best way to find out. This helps develop the content marketing strategies specific to your audience.

Even better, the process of creating these profiles will help you to understand your audience much better.  Then, you can give them what they’re looking for – and make your content even more appealing and valuable to them.

Here’s how to make sure that you’re talking to your users and customers in a way they understand and feel comfortable with.

Create Customer Profiles

Create customer personas for each major audience segment of your business. The more detailed these profiles are, the more useful they’ll be and beneficial to your marketing strategy.

apple marketing tips create customer profiles

Include factors such as age, gender, profession and other demographic information, plus psychographics – their pain points, fears, desires, etc. What motivates them to buy? What do they need before they’ll trust you? How can you fill that need?

You may have more than one profile expanding your marketing mix – e.g., older couples whose kids have already left home, singles who’ve graduated from college and haven’t married or had kids yet, etc.

Name Your Profile

Name and find a picture of a person – either from Google Images or a stock image site – that matches the profile. The idea here is to make each profile seem like an actual, living human being.

Here’s an example of a built-out customer profile, complete with name and picture, from Convince and Convert:

apple marketing tips customer profile example

Speak Their Language

Speak to these people in your marketing copy, with the language they understand. Look at each page on your website and revise anything that doesn’t sound like the way you’d actually speak to these folks.

Pretend you’re actually speaking to that person and your copy will appeal strongly to similar customers.

You can also carry that same customer-centered approach throughout every aspect of the customer’s journey, including customer service. Yes customer service is a key component in marketing strategies to develop loyalty and retain your market share.

Let’s say that you’re serving an older generation. Don’t force them to use a chat-based system for customer service. Give them a phone number and a person to speak to. And, make sure that your website copy is large enough for older people to read. Giving people what they want is how you capture greater market share.

Millennials, on the other hand, prefer chat-based systems, since they’re faster and easier to use for that generation. Don’t make these customers pick up the phone, when they really prefer to type out their problem and get an instant response. Understanding this diversity of your customers helps you develop the right marketing mix. 

5. Design a Better Customer Experience

Did you know Apple fans often create videos of themselves unwrapping their new Apple products and upload the video to YouTube?

It’s true. It’s called unboxing. Do a search on YouTube and you’ll find hundreds of Apple unboxings, each from different users across the globe.

Why does that happen?

Because Apple has created a customer experience that goes far beyond the actual purchase in a retail store. They no longer even need to be in charge of a huge part of their content marketing since their target market is doing it for them.

The “Apple experience” includes elements from every aspect of the purchasing process – comparing different product versions, trying out products in the retail store, actually buying the item, receiving it, unwrapping (sorry, unboxing) it, and setting it up.

Each of these elements doesn’t just happen by chance. They were all carefully crafted, revised and refined to appeal to the consumer’s every sense.

Take installation, for example. One of the things Apple fans truly appreciate about Apple’s computers is the ease with which you can set them up. It’s literally as simple as opening, plugging in, turning on and, voila – it all just works.

Yes, Apple spends thousands of hours on testing and designing and refining those designs. They do that so that what’s inside the box matches the box, and the box matches what’s inside.

The Apple retail store experience isn’t just a quick trip for most people. Most people who enter an Apple store end up staying in the retail store, trying the products, asking questions of the “geniuses” who work there – and many of them walk out with a new purchase. The Apple retail store inspires purchases.

apple marketing tips apple retails store example

The retail store is carefully designed and replicated to evoke the right “feeling” when you step inside. Warm lighting, monochromatic color schemes, and the layout of the store features all appeal to the shopper’s senses, without feeling cold and impersonal.  Even the large front windows that let people outside see everyone inside having a great time are intentional.

To implement Apple’s “eye for design” secret, start by charting out your customer’s experience with your brand. Note each major step and where it takes place (i.e., on your Facebook page, a specific page on your website, etc.).

Next, analyze each piece of that “experience puzzle” and score how well it fits with your overall brand. What can you improve?

Think about ways that you can make each point of contact with your prospect or customer cleaner, clearer and simpler. Make each part of the journey more consistent with the look, feel, visual branding elements, and personality of your brand.

Then, think about going even further. What could you do to delight your customer?

That’s the Apple way!

6. Aim at Your Prospects’ Emotions

Think back to the first ads for the iPad, after its buzzy launch in 2010 and how simple their content marketing was.

Remember those images of people relaxing in the living room with the strange new gadget? They looked happy and comfortable.

They weren’t talking about display dimensions or processing power. They were just enjoying their iPads.

Those ads, as with all of Apple’s marketing, hit their consumers where they really live – not in the pocketbook (we’ve already seen that’s not true at all!) but in their hearts.

Emotional connections are the key to successful marketing strategies. It’s what makes certain stories, videos, and memes go viral.

Dr. Jonah Berger’s famous study showed that content that evokes high arousal emotions is more likely to go viral than content that provokes no emotional response. Examples of high arousal emotions are happiness, awe, amusement and anxiety.

Moreover, positive content is more likely to go viral than negative content. Positive emotions simply trigger a stronger reaction in users’ brains than negative ones. These are simple marketing strategies.

In his book, Descartes’ Error, author Antonio Damasio, a professor of neuroscience at the University of Southern California, states that our emotions play a crucial part in our decision-making processes, especially when we’re buying something. Marketing strategies must start with emotion.

And, neurological science tells us the same thing. Functional MRI tests prove that when consumers evaluate businesses, they primarily use the parts of their brain associated with emotions, personal feelings, and memories/experiences, not the portions associated with facts.

Above all, you’ve got to understand and publish the kind of content that your target audience wants most of all. Smart content marketing gets you the most on the web’s leading social media networks? Turns out, it’s content that evokes either awe or laughter – or both.

The testing team at BuzzSumo wanted to understand just what makes content go viral and get shared thousands of times by users. So, they teamed up with OKDork and conducted an extensive study about the marketing mix in social media.

First, the team identified the most shared content all over the web, within a specific time period. Next, they mapped each of the articles to a specific emotion, such as joy, anger, sadness, happiness, laughter, amusement, empathy, etc.

Here’s what the breakdown they created looked like:

apple marketing tips why content goes viral

You can see from this chart that the top two emotions that the most viral content evoked in readers were awe (25%) and laughter (17%). Similar emotions, such as joy and amusement, accounted for another 29%.

What this means is that if you can quite literally make your readers happy with your content, you’ve really hit the target.

To evoke and build on your customers’ emotions the way Apple does, use emotional language in your copy where it makes sense to do so.  Make sure it flows naturally. One way to do this is to use emotion-trigger words in your copy to develop smart content marketing material.

Tip: To make sure copy flows naturally, record yourself as you read it aloud. Then, play it back. If it sounds stilted or formal, revise it until it sounds more conversational.

Also, think about what emotional impact your product or service evokes in your customers.  Then, look for or create images to use that evoke that same emotion.

Here’s an example: JustGiving, the world’s leading online fundraising platform, raised almost $1.5 million for its charitable partners. Look at this landing page image that the site uses:

apple marketing tips just giving example

What emotions does this image evoke for you? Personally, I see joy and awe – skydiving has got to be one of the world’s most awe-inspiring activities, after all.

There’s also the empathy and happiness that being generous and giving to worthwhile causes can create for people making charitable donations.

Finding the right images for your content can take some time and patience, but it’s so worthwhile. Images not only create visual interest on your page and break up long blocks of boring text – they can also help communicate your message and convert readers to subscribers.

In fact, I believe so strongly in the power of great images and screenshots that I routinely use as many as sixty in a single post – but I always make sure they add value, as well as depict the right emotional state in my readers. This is part of my marketing mix.

7. Build a Community of Users or Customers

Over the years, Apple has built one of the most hardcore fan bases for any brand, anywhere in the world.

The “fanboys” (and “fangirls”) who camp out for new product launches may represent a small percentage of Apple consumers overall, but that kind of fanaticism and enthusiasm are rare.

Apple has created a brand personality and culture that’s cool, fun, and friendly — the opposite of some of its competitors. Apple’s marketing strategies include making customers want to belong to that community. Their market share shows just how successful they have been.

Do you remember Apple’s “Think Different” ad campaign? It started with voiceover narration that said “Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers.” Haven’t we all felt like that at one time or another in our lives?

Apple smartly capitalized on the universality of that self-perception, which made its customers believe that the brand understands them and is like them.

Even small brands can build a community of devoted users and customers. You can start building a community before you even offer the first item for sale.

The first and most critical step to take in building a strong, vibrant and engaged community of users is to get crystal-clear on your brand values and personality.

You have to create a vivid and accurate picture of your brand in your own mind first — your brand’s core message, its deeply-held values, its personality and what it stands for above all else.

Then, your next step is to make sure that your pages, marketing copy and content all express those values and that personality. Every aspect of your website should be consistent with those words you chose to describe your brand, from graphics to fonts to color scheme.

Last, but not least, show your readers and users you value them, as well as their opinions. Let them know that you’re deeply interested in them with your content.

How can you do this effectively on the web? You can try any or all of the following tips to start with:

  • Ask open-ended questions in your content.
  • Respond to comments on your blog posts – carry on a conversation.
  • Try to initiate conversations with your users/readers on social media.
  • Create a referral reward program for customers who refer other new customers.
  • Reach out to customers with email.

Conclusion

One of the fastest ways to achieve a goal is to model those who’ve successfully achieved that same goal before.

Apple, the app store, and their retail shops are role models for any smart, modern brand that wants to create a raving fan base and super-loyal customers who will refer their friends and family members.

The idea isn’t to mimic Apple. Rather, get a sense of what Apple – or any other successful business – does well, then find creative ways to do the same in your business, always keeping the marketing mix consistent with your brand.

You can learn a lot from your competition, too. Competitor analysis can tell you what they’re doing right and what you can learn from and implement in your own marketing.

What other lessons can you draw from Apple’s marketing efforts?

4 Lifesaving Ways to Get Fast Working Capital in a Recession

The COVID-19 pandemic caught the world by surprise and turned the economy upside down.  If you are a business trying to make it during this time, we can help.  The Federal government has approved funding through  The CARES Act, including the Paycheck Protection Plan.  In addition, many states and local organizations are offering their own COVID-19 relief options.  If you need funds fast, keep reading for ways to get fast working capital in a recession.

Don’t Drown: Get Fast Working Capital in a Recession Regardless of Credit

If you are drowning, you need help fast. There is no time to learn how to swim if you don’t already know.  You can’t learn how to float in a heartbeat. You need a life preserver.  The same is true if you find yourself in need of fast working capital in a recession.  You can’t learn to swim at that point.  You need immediate help, and once you are safe, then you can focus on longer term solutions.

However, fast working capital in a recession isn’t easy to come by.  In fact, it can seem nearly impossible. There is hope though. You can escape from the recession storm, but it is going to take a lot of work. If you move in the right direction and grab the life preserver, I am about to toss you, survival is possible.

While the goal is to never get back into that kind of danger again, you have to actually get out of the water alive first. Here’s how.

Invoice Factoring for Fast Working Capital in a Recession

Not only is invoice factoring the fastest way to cash, it is also an option that depends very little on your credit, personal or business. In fact, sometimes there isn’t even a minimum credit requirement. They may pull a credit score, but they make decisions based more upon the strength of your invoices.

The lender will gather information to help them determine the likelihood of the invoices being repaid. If they find that the invoices are strong, they will lend money based on the total amount of the invoices minus a premium. The borrower can usually either repay the loan or the lender can keep the invoices and collect from them.

Hit the jackpot and weather any recession with our best webinar and its trustworthy list of seven vendors who can help you build business credit.

Here are a couple of options for creditors that offer invoice factoring without a minimum credit score or despite a low credit score.

Fundbox

Fundbox offers invoice financing for amounts less than $100,000. There is no minimum credit score, and there are options for a 12- week or 24-week repayment term.

BlueVine

If you have a larger amount in open invoices, like up to $5 million, you can get invoice financing from BlueVine.

Merchant Cash Advance

This is very similar to invoice factoring, but the funds are based on average credit card sales.  For example, if you average $20,000 in credit card sales per year, a merchant cash advance would allow you to access that cash at a premium.

Here is how it works.  If $20,000 is the average, you would get maybe $16,000 of that up from the creditor.  Then, they would take a percentage of your credit card sales, usually weekly, until the whole $20,000 was paid off.

It isn’t perfect, but it is definitely fast, and therefore an option for fast working capital in a recession.

Working Capital Loans for Fast Working Capital in a Recession

If you need really working capital in a recession, invoice factoring or a merchant cash advance is your best bet. Of course, that only works if you have credit cards sales or invoices to factor.  Another option, which takes a little more time, is to apply for a working capital loan from an alternative lender.

Some alternative lenders pull a credit report, but they have a low minimum score requirement. For example, Fundbox offers working capital loans to businesses that have been in operation for at least 3 months and have at least $50,000 in revenue. They lend amounts up to $100,000, and there is no credit check

Kabbage offers something similar if you have been in business for at least 1 year and have $50,000 in revenue. They will lend up to $250,000. There is no minimum credit score here either, but most approvals have over 500. You also have to have either a business checking account or use and online payment platform.

Quaterspot will lend up to $250,000 if you have been in business for at least one year and have at least $200,000 in annual revenue. They will do a soft credit pull, but it does not affect your credit. The minimum score is 550.

Business Credit Cards for Fast Working Capital in a Recession

Even if your personal credit isn’t fabulous, you can get fast working capital in a recession with business credit cards.  How?  You can do it with your business credit.  That is, your business credit score.  It is totally separate from your personal credit score.

If you have business credit you can access those cards for fast working capital in a recession if needed.  Of course, credit cards are not an ideal source of working capital, but if you need a way out of the waves, they work well as a life preserver.

Hit the jackpot and weather any recession with our best webinar and its trustworthy list of seven vendors who can help you build business credit.

Credit Line Hybrid

A credit line hybrid is revolving, unsecured financing.  It allows you to fund your business without putting up collateral, and you only pay back what you use.  It even works for startups.

What are the Qualifications?

How hard is it to qualify?  It’s probably easier than you think.  You do need good personal credit.  That is, your personal credit score should be at least 685.  In addition, you can’t have any liens, judgments, bankruptcies or late payments.  Also, in the past 6 months, you should have less than 5 credit inquiries, and you should have less than a 45% balance on all business and personal credit cards.  It’s also preferred that you have established business credit as well as personal credit.

If you do not meet all of the requirements, all is not lost. You can take on a credit partner that meets each of these requirements.  Many business owners work with a friend or relative to fund their business. If a relative or a friend meets all of these requirements, they can partner with you to allow you to tap into their credit to access funding.

How to Get Business Credit

If you are not in trouble yet, start now establishing and building business credit so that when hard times come, are ready to meet them head on.  Even if you are already in trouble, find one of the other options for fast working capital in a recession and go ahead and get busy working on your business credit.  You can start at any time, even if you are in the middle of a recession storm.  Here’s how.

Establish Business CreditFast Working Capital in a Recession Credit Suite2

The first step in getting business credit is to establish your business as a separate entity from yourself.  This isn’t hard at any point, but it is a lot easier if you start at the beginning.  Start by ensuring your business has its own contact information.  It cannot have the same address, telephone number, or email address as you.  The telephone number needs to be toll-free, and the email address should have the same URL as your business website.  Yes, you need a website.  More on that later.

Next, set up your business as a formal corporation.  It needs to be either a corporation, S-corp, or LLC.  Operating as a sole proprietor or partnership will not suffice for business credit purposes.

After this, you need to apply for two different identifying numbers.  The first is an EIN.  This is similar to a social security number, but for your business.  You can apply for free on the IRS website.  After that, you need a DUNS number.  This is a number assigned by Dun & Bradstreet, the largest and most often used business credit reporting agency.  Apply for it for free on their website.

Set Up a Separate Bank Account

This not only helps to separate your business from yourself, but it also helps keep business and personal finances separated.  It will be easier to track business expenses and income, which is a huge time saver come tax time.

Work with Starter Vendors

These are vendors that will extend net 30 terms on invoices and report payments to the credit agencies without checking your credit.  You may have to make a few initial purchases, and some have a minimum time in business or revenue requirement.  Companies in that will do this are the best place to start when it comes to getting payments reporting to establish business credit.

Beyond Starter Vendors

Once you have a few starter vendor accounts reporting you will be able to apply and get approval for other credit cards, which can be a source of fast working capital in a recession. The store cards are the next step.  These include credit cards connected to specific retail stores such as Amazon, Best Buy, and Office Depot.

After enough of these are reporting to the credit agencies, you can apply for fleet credit cards.  They include cards from Fuelman, WEX, and others that can be used for fuel as well as vehicle repair and maintenance.

Eventually, you will have enough accounts reporting that you can apply for, and get approval for, cards general use credit cards.  This is where you can really access significant fast working capital in a recession if necessary.  Cards in the cash credit tier include MasterCard and Visa cards that are not attached to a specific store or limited by the type or location of purchase.

Like I said, even if you do not have business credit in place before the recession hits, this process will still work.  You can use it at any time, but if you already have business credit in place, it will be easier and faster to use it to access fast working capital in a recession.

An Ounce of Prevention…Always Prepared

Once you are out of the water, don’t get back in until you know how to handle yourself.  Learn how to swim, take a survival class, and be prepared.

The way you do this is by establishing and building strong business credit. Not only will this keep you out of choppy water, but it can turn that same churning nightmare into beautifying, relaxing, calm waters.

Here is how you start.

Figure Out What Happened

Did you fall overboard or were you pushed? If hard times just sent you flying over the rails and into the churning waves, don’t sweat it.  It happens.  Just grab a hold of the first floating object you can find, hold on for dear life, and make it through.  Use the fast working capital in a recession and you will come out on the other side.

If, however, your peril was caused by foolish decisions, poor planning, or some undiscovered fraud, you are going to have some work to do when you get out.  Damage control is in order.  Figure out what happened and take steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

Hit the jackpot and weather any recession with our best webinar and its trustworthy list of seven vendors who can help you build business credit.

Learn to Read Financials

The best way to stay on top of your finances is to understand your financial statements.  There is more to it that just revenue, expenses, and assets.  Of course you need to understand profit, but learn to look closer.  Figure out the real story your financial statements are telling you.

There is a lot to this, but the easiest and quickest way to start is to do a comparison.  Take a look at what sales, profit, and expenses looked like at the same time last year, last quarter, and last month.  If you see a significant change, look into it.  You may find something easily explained, such as an increase in cost or a decline in sales that is standard at that time of the year.

You may, however, find something that is causing a problem.  Has a cost increased significantly enough that you need to shop around for a better price?  Is there a cash leak that you cannot get your hands around?  It could be fraud.

Maybe receivables haven’t turned over at all in a significant amount of time.  Consider increasing collection efforts or revisiting the credit policy.  Learning how to read your financial statements and understand what they are telling you will help you stay out of the deep end.

Evaluate Processes

Look at your processes.  Is there a more efficient way to do things?  It isn’t uncommon to find that you need to make some changes during an economic downturn.  Maybe you need to adjust the hours you are open or make some staffing changes.  Take a fresh look at your pricing model and make any decisions that need to be made.

Use Fast Working Capital in a Recession Wisely

Whether you turn to invoice factoring, merchant cash advances, working capital loans, or business credit cards, you need to handle the working capital you access during a recession wisely.  Make payments consistently on-time, and don’t blow it.  It is best to have a plan and a budget in place for the funds before you have it in hand.

The post 4 Lifesaving Ways to Get Fast Working Capital in a Recession appeared first on Credit Suite.

CareRev (YC S16) Is Hiring a Senior Back End Engineer in Los Angeles

CareRev (YC S16) | Senior Back End Engineer | Los Angeles, CA (Marina/Culver City) | Full-Time | Onsite Us: We build software to help the health care industry fully staff RNs, CNAs, MAs, Therapists, and Technologists efficiently. We are experiencing strong growth selling to both Surgery Centers and Hospitals. Role: Senior Back End Engineer with …