Networking is vital to a small businesses growth. Typically, small businesses owners rely on their existing networks for initial customers. In addition, small business owners will try to quickly expand their networks in hopes of generating new customers. While this push to increase business contacts is understandable, small business owners should be careful to not alienate contacts. Here are some simple guidelines to professional networking:

The purchase agreement outlines detailed terms and conditions of a transaction. These items include (i) Purchase Price Terms, (ii) Escrow, (iii) Representations and Warranties, (iii) Provisions of the contract that are crucial, (iv) Special Considerations, (v) Indemnity, and (vi) Post-closing covenants / restrictive covenants.

Email marketing might be a good way for you to generate traffic for your website. However, before discussing email marketing, let’s first look at laws governing spam to ensure you don’t break any laws.

The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 specifies requirements that marketers must comply with in order to be in compliance. Failing to adhere to these laws could be costly as each violation cf the requirements below is subject to a $11,000 fine.

• False and/or Misleading Headers - email’s “From,” “To,” and routing information – including the originating domain name and email address – must be accurate and identify the person who initiated the email.

• False and/or Misleading Subject Lines - subject line cannot mislead recipients about content/purpose of emails.

• Must have opt-out method - must provide return email address or way for recipients to specify that they no longer want to receive emails from you.

• Commercial email be identified as an advertisement - must include clear content denoting that the email is an advertisement and that recipients are able to opt out. And, it must include sender’s valid physical postal address -

In addition, commercial emailers may also be punished for pulling email addresses from websites that have explicitly specified that the email addresses listed on the website may not be used for sending emails.

Now that you are aware of the requirements around email marketing, let’s move on to discussing email marketing and its advantages.

Email marketing provides several advantages:

• Distribution at Low Cost - ability to reach large audience that would be otherwise in accessible.

• Ability to Track (aka Measure Profitability) - given that you are able to track the number of recipients opening, clicking through and purchasing from email campaigns, it is easy to calculate a precise return on investment and profitability on customers.

• Ability to Test on Small Scale - you have the ability to start off with smaller email campaigns to test success across various factors and recipient characteristics (e.g., demographics).

DMA: “The Power of Direct Marketing: ROI, Sales, Expenditures and Employment in the U.S., 2006-2007 Edition”, Direct Marketing Association, October 2006.

Key parts of a successful email marketing campaigns include:

• Appealing Subject - given the proliferation of spam and email marketing, many recipients will screen emails based on the subjects of the emails.  Therefore, you should strive to have a subject that grabs recipients’ attention.

• Good and Clear Content - your email campaigns shoud be targeted to specific recipient characteristics (e.g., demographics) and thus, your emails should also have content that is geared to these specific characteristics.

• A Call to Action - your email needs to have clear statement of what you want/expect the recipient to do.

There are a couple key metrics to monitor to help judge the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns. A few are discussed below:

• Cost of Renting / Buying Names - how much did it cost in total and per email for your email campaign.

• Number of Opens - how many recipients of the email actually opened or viewed the email. If you aren’t getting a lot of opens, potentially your email is being considered spam by recipients and simply deleted without recipients opening it.

• Number of Click Throughs -how many recipients of the total number of emails sent are actually clicking through your link in the email to view the offer or promotion.

• Number of Users Unsubscribing - how many recipients clicked to unsubscribe from your newsletter, email campaigns, etc.

• Number of Purchases (if applicable) - how many email recipients actually made a purchase.

• Average Purchase Amount (if applicable) - for the recipients actually purchasing through the link in the email, what is the average spend per customer.

• Estimated Profit / Purchase - average purchase amount less the cost of the campaign/user and the cost of the goods your are selling.

This is an example indication of interest (IOI) for users to review.

Buyer LLC is pleased to submit this indication of interest to purchase Specialty Retailer, Inc. (the “Company”) in an asset transaction. Based on our discussions with the management team and the information provided, we believe the Company is a good fit with our investment criteria - to invest in growing companies with scalable management teams and infrastructure. We have a strong track record investing in specialty retail companies and are excited about the opportunity Specialty Retailer represents. We believe our background and years of experience building retailers both through organic initiatives and acquisitions makes us a valuable partner in achieving the Company’s strategic growth plans.