Microloans are small loans which are issued to businesses by individuals opposed to credit unions or banks. The concept of microcredit originated in the developing world, as a means of helping people in smaller economics have the ability to launch their own business. Microlending subsequently took off around the world, and today, small business microloans are an effective way to lend entrepreneurs and small businesses in the U.S. with the funds they need to start and develop their business.

General Terms of Microloans

The maximum amount a microloan will typically lend is up to $35,000. However, in some instances, lenders will lend up to $50,000. The average amount microloans lend is around $10,000.  Businesses can use microloans to borrow as little as $500, making these types of loans a good option for small businesses needing to get their hands on smaller funds.

One of the key attractions of a microloan is that they are generally easier to qualify for than a traditional small business loan. Specific eligibility criteria vary from lender to lender, and can be influenced by the type of industry the business operates in.

Rather than being solely about credit scores, microloans work more closely with the small business owner applying for the loan, to find out about the business and its goals and objectives. The lender uses such information to determine whether they will lend the applicant the funds.

The maximum repayment terms for small business microloans is generally six years, giving small businesses sufficient time to pay back the loan whilst they get their business up and running and make it profitable.

Why Small Businesses Might Need a Microloan

This type of loan is usually borrowed by a startup to help them fund the items required to get the venture up and running, such as equipment, the lease of an office, or employees’ salaries.

Microloans are also sometimes used to provide small businesses with working capital to enable them to manage cash flow more proficiently, such as to cover outgoings as they wait for invoices to be paid, to develop a comprehensive marketing program, or to stock up on inventory when it is at a reduced price or in time for a busy holiday season.

How Your Small Business Can Get a Microloan

Before applying for a microloan, you should carry out some research and shop around to see the different criteria of the different microlenders to help determine which lender might be most suitable for your specific requirements and objectives. Check that your small business is likely to be eligible for the microloan. Look for certified and reputable lenders that come with praiseworthy testimonials from other small business owners.

It would help if you draw up a comprehensive business plan , which defines how you plan to use the loan. Once you believe you meet the criteria of the loan, you should make the application, which can typically be done online. Answer the questions as accurately and honestly as possible. The lender will then decide whether to proceed and lend you the funds you are looking for.

To give you a helping hand in your quest to find a reputable microloan lender to provide the finance you need for your small business, here are three credible microloan lenders in the U.S.

Microloan.org

Microloan.org is dedicated to enriching communities by providing small businesses with the funds they need to create a high-quality business development, which creates sustaining jobs for the community. If you are looking for a strategic partner to help you find the best borrowing option to help your business grow, Microloan.org would be a good place to start.

Kiva

Kiva is an international non-profit based in San Francisco. Kiva offers microloans which are crowdfunded, where backers can donate as little as $25 to borrowers. Kiva’s microloans are typically used to start or grow a small business. You would repay the lenders the money back through Kiva.

Accion USA

Accion USA is a non-profit organization that provides microloans of up to $50,000 to low and moderate-income entrepreneurs. Accion looks at a business owner’s individual circumstances and strengths to determine whether to provide them with a microloan.

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This article, “What is a Microloan and Where Can You Get One for Your Small Business?” was first published on Small Business Trends

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Use business live streaming to share successes and failures and become part of a growing trend. Audiences want to see live streams where businesses reveal major mistakes and solutions. As humorist Sam Levenson said, “You must learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t possibly live long enough to make them all yourself.”

As always, don’t be trendy for the sake of being trendy. Common business wisdom is to tie every decision to a larger goal — or a call-to-action no matter how small. Small Business Trends spoke with a Broadway producer who knows there should be a point to every livestream.

Business Live Streaming Shares Successes and Failures

Though he’s won multiple Tony Awards, Ken Davenport says structured learning wasn’t exactly available when he was new to the world of  Broadway, at least not in the modern ways he’s packaged it. Today he can provide experienced guidance to his network through exclusive masterminds and even conferences.

* * * * *

Davenport is an award-winning producer of “Godspell” and “Kinky Boots” fame, most recently heard accepting the 2018 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical for “Once On This Island.” An early adopter of tech tools, he was the first person to crowdfund a Broadway production almost a decade ago. Davenport has supported the Broadway ecosystem through a number of his own subsidiary businesses and is also the Executive Producer for North America of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group. Davenport was named one of Crain’s “40 Under Forty,” and is one of the co-founders of TEDxBroadway. Upcoming projects include his original musical “Gettin’ The Band Back Together.” His unique approaches have led to media coverage in the NY Times, MSNBC, Rock Center, Fox News, BBC, and a mention in Jay Leno’s monologue on “The Tonight Show.”

Video Length Depends On The Goal

Small Business Trends: Hi Ken, I’m shocked that you have time to do a daily Facebook Live for your audience. Have you been able to stick with it daily? What are the longer town hall videos for?

Ken Davenport: My “every day” Facebook Live isn’t daily actually; the name I gave it, #EveryDayIsDifferent, is more about how each day has a new challenge or obstacle, and about how each project is uniquely its own. Each year I host a Town Hall for the Broadway community where they can ask me their burning questions about the business of Broadway. This year’s Town Hall was one of my favorites and I received some interesting questions about raising money, pitching your show to investors, out-of-town tryouts, how to collaborate with directors and more.

Inspiration: Get to your YES! #OnceOnThisIsland #TonyAwards pic.twitter.com/Wjp0QIWfXq

— CBS (@CBS) June 11, 2018

Doing the Town Hall on Facebook Live is a way for anyone to preview our Mastermind Program, which has been an essential part of a success plan for our members who want fast results.

Small Business Trends: I love masterminds, and I know different types exist. How does your mastermind work?

Ken Davenport: It’s an exclusive community of professionals we heavily screen through our application process. These people are the best of the best and will help guide you along the path to production. Everyone in the Mastermind is unique in skill, experience and connections. By interacting and sharing your challenges, it’s almost certain that someone in the Mastermind will have a solution for you, and you may also be able to offer a solution, connection or tactic to help someone in the group. Admission into our Mastermind opens only once per year. I also have a membership-based portal for online training called The Producer’s Perspective PRO with monthly Live Office Hours Calls, weekly tips, monthly industry newsletters, and in-person events like mixers, breakfasts and workshops.

I wish these things had existed for me when I was starting out. In just about every show I’ve ever produced, there have been derailments and moments of feeling stuck. This is common in the entertainment industry due to its collaborative nature. You need many, many people to make a musical or a film. The more people who are involved, the more stumbling blocks you’re going to encounter. It’s a fact. So prepare for it and know you have the ability to get through it.

Small Business Trends: You’re producing a musical about inventor and HSN star Joy Mangano’s life?

Ken Davenport: Yes, Joy Mangano started as a single mom and turned a small business into big business! She has an extraordinary life story. But expect more announcements in 2019; producing for Broadway is a very long process of small and large steps. As I say in one of my books, How to Succeed in the Arts… Or in Anything, accomplishing something small puts you on the path to accomplish something great.

“The Awesome 80s Prom” was a tiny Off Broadway show of mine that ran for one night a week. It was capitalized for only $120,000, in other words its production budget, but it quickly became New York’s number one bachelorette party and sweet 16 destination. And to think, I almost didn’t go ahead with it because I felt it wasn’t important enough. The Prom ran for 10 years and returned about 500% to its investors.

Small Business Trends: What are some fun facts that underscore your work ethic?

Ken Davenport: The morning after “Once On This Island” won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical, we weren’t sleeping in. We had ad meetings, and an evening performance! On top of this, my new show, “Gettin’ The Band Back Together,” started rehearsals at 10 AM sharp. Even after decades working on Broadway and off, I still consider myself a student.

Small Business Trends: Where can people see what you’re working on, including watching your Facebook videos?

Ken Davenport: Visit my blog at TheProducersPerspective.com. There you’ll find a link explaining our Mastermind. For Facebook, go to facebook.com/KenDavenport. Like my page and you should get a notification for my live videos and replays.

Images: TheProducersPerspective.com

This article, “Broadway Entrepreneur Uses Business Live Steaming to Help Others” was first published on Small Business Trends

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No one’s doubting the power of a good customer testimonial. They’re among the most trusted forms of advertising your business can offer; they cost nothing on your part; and customers who write them for you are all the more likely to remain loyal to your business for having done so.

Of course, what makes testimonials so powerful is the fact that they’re written by people who have no financial stake whatsoever in your business. And the lack of bias that presumes is refreshing. It’s why we all turn to platforms like Yelp or read online reviews before we head to that restaurant for lunch or purchase that next gadget.

But what about the testimonials on your company’s website?

Those testimonials are only going to serve you if they meet certain criteria and are skillfully placed on your site. If they do and are, they’ll make a world of difference to your site’s conversions.

How to Boost Conversions With Website Testimonials

Here’s how to make that happen:

1. Know What Makes a Good Testimonial

Stellar testimonials contain these four essential elements:

• They offer specifics (think numbers, percentages, pain points, benefits, and outcomes).
• They use those details to tell a before-and-after story (“Thanks to Karen, we saw a 35% increase in revenue this year”; “After six months of working with Jabir, I’m no longer taking pain medications”).
• They raise and then dispel objections (“We had concerns about employee training; but the system took virtually no time to implement”).
• They look and sound authentic (i.e. they’re accompanied by the writer’s name, company, title, Gravatar, and social media handles).

2. Know Where to Look

It’s possible that some of the best “testimonials” you can offer didn’t begin as testimonials at all. Rather, they’re embedded in the correspondence you’ve had with customers over the years, or they’re scattered across the web. So it’s time to shift your assumption that a testimonial is only a testimonial if the writer intended it to be one.

Search your inbox for emails from your most loyal customers, or from those who benefit most from your business. Did they write about their transformation or their experience of your product or service? If so, extract those lines, write to your customer, and ask permission to use them.

There’s likely also a breadcrumb trail of testimonial material in comments customers have left on your company blog, on their own blogs, on public review sites, and on social media. There are many platforms out there that let you track mentions of your company on the web. Make use of these! Don’t let those exceptional comments about your company linger in the black hole of internet oblivion.

3. Know How to Ask

Once you’ve exhausted your virtual search, it may be time to make an ask. Here’s how:

• Send an email to your customers asking if they’d be willing to plug your business on a review site. Include links to those sites, and offer an example or two of a stellar testimonial. This gives customers a sense of what you’re looking for; but it also shows that others have already written for you. Customers will be all the more likely to jump on the review bandwagon thanks to this form of social proof.
• Put your customer satisfaction survey to a dual use. You’re already using one, right? Insert a checkbox into the survey that clients can check if they’re willing to have you excerpt their responses for testimonials.
• Ask your most longstanding customers if they’d write you “a testimonial.” There’s a perception that writing a testimonial is more labor-intensive than writing a review; so you may want to save this word for the customers you know are willing to put that kind of work in. Your long-term customers may even be willing to make a video testimonial for you. Gauge your ask based on the strength of your relationship.
• Give visitors the opportunity to submit a testimonial on your website. This could be as simple as placing a link on your homepage that says “How are we doing?” and leads to a submission form. Again, place an exemplary testimonial near that link: It sets the bar; it serves as social proof; and it makes that testimonial more believable.
• Initiate a “testimonial swap” with a business tangential to yours. This will be a business you’re already in a relationship of some kind with (perhaps you’re cross-referring clients, for example); so you know that business’ strengths, values, and accomplishments — and they know yours.

4. Know What to Ask

Remember the elements of a good testimonial: You’ll want to pose questions that ensure customers are giving you numbers, details, initial doubts, and narratives. Otherwise you’ll get a handful of testimonials about how “awesome” you are — and you probably are! — but nothing of substance to show your prospects. Questions bound to produce strong testimonials include:

• Did you have any hesitations about our offering; and what happened to those hesitations after you used our product or hired our service?
• What was the nature of the problem you had when you contacted our company; and how was that problem ultimately solved for you?
• What feature or benefit of our offering made you choose us above the competition? Had you tried other solutions before us?
• What specific outcomes or improvements have you experienced as a result of our product or service?

You get the picture. Pose your questions so that customers have no choice but to offer you the juicy details in response.

5. Strive for Variety

You’ve been on the internet long enough to know that prospects will be more compelled by moving images than they will by consecutive blocks of testimonial text. So give them some eye candy.

Video testimonials do wonders for conversions; so do images of any kind. Offer before-and-after shots of transformations you’ve actualized for your clients. Show your customers in their natural habitat, as they benefit from your product. Include company logos, audio, graphs, and graphics. Keep asking the question: How can I make the experience of consuming testimonials enjoyable for my prospect?

This is your think-outside-the-box moment. Have at it.

6. Keep a Dedicated Testimonials Page on your Site

This strategy will be particularly valuable if your product or service requires a heavy financial investment on your prospects’ parts. The more assurance your prospects will need, the more social proof you should have ready for them.

Consider offering a sorting feature so users can quickly locate the testimonials they’ll most resonate with. Include a CTA and an unmissable link to your product page or landing page. Remember, prospects may be clicking into your testimonials page for that last bit of positive reassurance. Many of them might make the decision to purchase while on that page. Don’t make it difficult for them to do so.

7. Place Testimonials at Friction Points

A friction point is any place on your website where a prospect is likely to feel resistant to converting. This means all CTA buttons. (Every call to action asks users to make the switch from passive consumers of information to active responders; resistance is strong there.) This also means your pricing page, your checkout page… and any page that involves a form.

Reminding prospects about the benefits of your offering at precisely these sites of resistance ultimately means less resistance.

8. Use Design to Draw Users’ Eyes to your Testimonials

What this means for your testimonials page is that you should give each testimonial the royal treatment it deserves. Use whitespace, images, or graphics to separate testimonials from each other, so that each has its own pride of place. No matter how good the praise is, no one is going to skim through a mass of continuous text to find the testimonials most relevant to them.

For those testimonials dispersed elsewhere on your site? The same rules apply. Whitespace, color, or surrounding images will draw visitors’ eyes to exactly the text you want them to see.

After all, a testimonial can only convert once it’s been seen and read.

It might be valuable for you to see some stellar testimonials in action; if so, check out these examples. And of course, testimonials are only one small (but significant!) element of your business website. Zoho Academy’s Roadmap to Your Best Business Website is packed with tips, tricks, recommendations, and best practices for whatever other elements you may be working through.

Photo via Shutterstock

This article, “Apply These 8 Secret Techniques to Turn Your Website Testimonials into Conversion Generators” was first published on Small Business Trends

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Your FAQ exists for one purpose: to stand in for the human who would be present and available if your website was a brick-and-mortar shop. When done well, it clarifies concepts, dispels confusion, addresses concerns, reduces frustration, and — perhaps most importantly — removes your prospects’ obstacles to conversion. Ultimately, it means you’re fielding fewer calls and responding to fewer emails while seeing more sales.

How to Make a Great FAQ Page

Not a bad trade-off, right? And yet, that trade-off only happens when an FAQ is done well. Here’s what a great FAQ does:

1. It Takes the “F” in FAQ Seriously

“F” is the most important letter in that acronym… because it alerts you to precisely which questions you should include in your FAQ. What this excludes are: 1) The questions you prefer your prospects were asking; 2) The questions you cleverly concoct to create demand for your product; and 3) The questions about your product, service, or business that are most important to you.

So where do you find the inquiries your business most commonly gets? Here are some great starting places:

• your email correspondence
• your customer support tickets
• the employees who regularly interact with your prospects and customers (sales team, customer support team, front-of-house staff, etc)
• your social media pages
• the feedback form on your website
• customer surveys (maybe you even create a survey explicitly for customer assistance with your FAQ)

The most valuable questions you can include in your FAQ are already written by your prospects and customers. The good news? This means less work for you. The bad news? This means letting go of your opinion of what a “good” question is.

2. It Answers the Questions it would Rather not Answer

“Why is your service so expensive?” “Why’d you stop making my favorite product?” “Why don’t you offer a money-back guarantee?” Insert the question you don’t want to answer about your own business here.

So what about question you’d prefer not to answer?

Is it frequently asked?

Yes?

Then answer it.

Here’s why: If you evade the negative or difficult questions, your visitors won’t simply decide they’re not important questions. Instead, they’ll turn to social media… and we don’t have to tell you that’s a goldmine of conjecture, misinformation, and erroneous answers.

Best to avoid that predicament. Instead, find a way to frame those questions in a positive light, and provide answers that are real, honest… and maybe even imbued with humor.

Discuss your product’s unique features, or describe its ethically-sourced ingredients or its careful production process, to explain why it costs more than your competitor’s product. Honestly state your geographical, material, or financial limitations — and then remind prospects what your business is capable of. Point toward a future where you hope to be able to offer the things they’re asking for. And so on.

Your prospects will see the integrity in your forthrightness; and you’ll only gain their trust when they see you’re willing to answer the more delicate questions.

3. It Sounds Human

This means a few things. It means using the same language your prospects and customers use to answer their questions (which means cutting the jargon). It means writing your FAQ as though it were a conversation taking place in real-time, in which the questions are posed in the first person (“What do I do if…?”) and the answers are written from the perspective of your business (“You should …”). It means considering how you speak to your prospects and customers in real time, and injecting that same personality into your answers. It means avoiding long-windedness.

Essentially, it means writing answers that sound like you. Record yourself speaking the answers, and/or read them aloud once you’ve written them. We think you’ll recognize the difference between what sounds authentically like you… and what doesn’t.

4. It’s a Breeze to Navigate

Straightforward, intuitive, seamless navigation means these things:

• Your FAQ is prominently placed on — or linked to from — your homepage, as well as every other page on your website,

• Its questions are logically categorized (by product, audience type, stage in the buyer’s journey, and so on), so that users know instinctively how to get to the question they have,

• The questions couched in each category are displayed from basic to more complex,

• You’ve set up your page architecture (jump links, hyperlinks, an accordion interface) so that users don’t have to scroll through every answer to get to the question relevant to them,

• You’ve enabled a search feature specific to your FAQs (separate from your site-wide search feature.)

5. It Goes Beyond Text-Based Answers

Video! Screenshots! Charts! Infographics! Your site visitors will love you for including these things in your FAQ.

Don’t restrict yourself — and your users — to text: Many of the questions you receive may be better answered through another medium. Where you have to explain a concept, describe a process, or detail instructions, consider your users’ states of mind. Would a visual communicate what you want to say better, faster, or with more clarity than a wordy description? If so, go that route. We’re a visual generation, after all, with a diminishing patience for words. Simply speaking, a multimedia FAQ means great UX.

6. It’s Always Thinking about Conversions

Your prospects know as well as you do that the primary reason your website exists is to convert leads to customers. This goes for your FAQ as well as any other page on your site.

What’s more, prospects are likely only reading your FAQ because they’re somewhere in the consideration stage. So give them the opportunity to take the next step — and keep in mind that the “next step” will depend upon the question they’re asking. If they’ve clicked into a question about one of your products, include links to its product page in your answer. If they’ve clicked into a question about your process or method, offer them a CTA to request a quote. And so on.

The challenge here is to think carefully about where in their journey a user is for each particular question… and then lead them to the logical next step.

7. It Invites Contacts and Feedback

Your FAQ isn’t all-inclusive; and there will be visitors who come to it with questions that it simply doesn’t cover.

Don’t leave those visitors hanging. Display your company’s contact details as conspicuously as possible — and give them as many options has you have (phone number, email, social media handles, maybe even a live chat feature). This way, users can contact you in the moment, while their questions are still front-of-mind and pressing. And they can choose the method of contact they’re most comfortable with.

What’s more, let your FAQ visitors tell you how useful your answers are. This may be as simple as asking “Was this answer helpful?” and offering “Yes” and “No” buttons for users to respond — though you might also offer them a form to input verbal feedback. The point is to show your users that you value their time, and that you’re willing to iterate to offer them the most valuable FAQ possible.

8. It’s Current

We’ll keep this one short: If your business is growing and evolving (and hopefully it is!), then your prospects’ and customers’ concerns are evolving with it. Your FAQ should always reflect the questions being frequently asked in this moment. This may mean removing questions that visitors are suddenly asking less frequently. And it certainly means introducing the new ones they’ve begun to ask.

9. It isn’t (Necessarily) “a Page”

Yep; we saved the surprise for our final point. If you’ve been imagining that your FAQ page must be a single, dedicated page that answers all your visitors’ questions in one place, we’re giving you permission here to imagine other options.

Remember that visitors are going to have questions about your business and its offering no matter what page of your website they’re on. So while a single, overarching FAQ page is a great idea, it may do your conversions good to include shorter, page-specific FAQs.

If you run an online shop, for instance, your checkout page might include an FAQ that answers questions specific to shipping, refunds, and returns policies. You might maintain separate FAQs for prospects and for current subscribers on separate landing pages. If your business offers diverse services, you might have an FAQ specific to each one. And so on.

The point is to get into your users’ heads and imagine the kinds of questions each page on your site will provoke.

Because if you can answer their questions before they lift a finger to click? That’s some exceptional UX.

So there you have it. If you want to see some FAQs in action, check out these three pretty stellar FAQ pages. And if you’re creating—or overhauling — not only your FAQ, but also other aspects of your website, Zoho Academy’s Roadmap to Your Best Business Website might be your new best friend. We’ve got recommendations and best practices on everything from homepages, to online shops, to testimonials, to CTA buttons… and more.

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This article, “9 Characteristics of an Awesome FAQ Page” was first published on Small Business Trends

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