I was checking out and surfing the web one day for great ideas for websites as I was planning to start my own personal page and I wanted something really unique so to say and also, I wanted something that wont cost me a cent as I was tired of paying out for services that was not really that beneficial to me. It turns out there are lots and lots of website builders to choose from these days but one of them really stood out for me from the start and that was wix.com. You know why? First up in the front page alone, it already talks about how many people are using it with more than two million at the current stand. It must mean that people must really like its services for that many to be using it and I wanted to a part of something like that, therefore I lost no time in checking it out and experimenting on the online editor and it was really way cool! So easy and so user friendly! Even with my limited skill in web design, I could say that I felt real proud that I was able to design all these stuff by myself and in the end of it all, it all boils down to my own skill and the ease of use of wix.com. But this is really okay as the important thing is I had real fun creating my webpage and that will be courtesy of wix.com I should say.
February 23, 2010
February 13, 2010
Online cash advance
Everything becomes online now. If you want a loan for your business or personal expanses, you no need to go to the loan providers. Just connect the website and fill out the application online. You will receive your loan within a day. It requires only a minimum amount. This means, borrowers can acquiesce their in-boxes, ignoring the borrower is powerless to refund the complete quantity. Others may be able to raise money by selling their old or obsolete gold for cash to a cash buyer to help with a financial emergency. To get an application approved for cash advance loans the criteria cash advance loans is minimal that includes rules of the applicant being minimum 18 years and having a salaried job.
February 11, 2010
Payday loan interest
If your bad credit is stopping you from getting a credit card or taking out a conventional loan, you can still get the money you need through a bad credit payday loans no faxing. Make sure you line up the information you have written. You can justify or left aligning data. Borrowers can easily consult the experts for getting rationalization on significant issues related to the online loan. Millions of Canadians look to payday loans today to get them the quick, immediate cash they need for whatever financial situation they are in.Needless to say, I doubt stimulus advocates want to tell you that they’re using the Federal Government’s long term paper to bring you a low-cost payday loan, but that’s precisely what they are doing.
How to Find a Business That’s Right for You
Finding a business that matches your personality is the most crucial step in becoming self-employed. It makes no sense to leave an unfulfilling job to go into an equally unrewarding business enterprise. The strength of successful small businesses comes from the unique combination of the entrepreneur’s personality and a great product or service. While many aspiring business owners seem to understand their interests and abilities, they don’t have the slightest notion of what business idea might be an appropriate match. Yet it’s not as difficult as you might think to come up with a workable business idea. To help assure that you find a good match, you should candidly consider your lifestyle, interests and experience, A good place to start is to ask yourself if you like working with people or prefer to work more by yourself. If you are shy and will be uncomfortable around new people, you’d be best advised to stay away from a high-profile selling scenario. On the other hand, if you thrive on the energy of other people, you probably won’t he happy in a manufacturing business. It’s easy to overlook these natural tendencies when you allow yourself to get carried away with fads or with the opinions of your friends and relatives. Remember, if you try a business that is a poor fit and you fail, you will be the one who is left with the debts, not your friends. Review the things you like to do best. For example, if you love to go camping and hiking, a business in outdoor recreation might be a good fit for you. But what form should it take? Sporting goods store? Expedition leader? Equipment manufacturer? Newsletter publisher? You can quickly see that one idea can develop into many forms. Although you may eventually try them all in your business, you need to focus on one at the beginning. How do you go about doing that? Take Advantage of What You Know It’s generally advisable to start with something you have done before and are good at. Ask yourself what basic skills are required by this activity. For example, are you good with your hands? Do you speak well to groups? Can you write well? Are you well-organized? If your don’t have all the necessary skills, can you learn those you need? Another good way to learn the pros and cons of a business you’re considering is to seek out people in the same or similar businesses and talk with them. Ask them first for their advice. Observe how they function in their work. Read books on the subject-but be careful not to try starting a business on the basis of a book’s advice alone – you will be getting information from only the most optimistic viewpoint. The best source for learning is to actually work in the business. In the ferociously competitive world of small business, this is not always possible. Still, it’s worth trying to find a mentor who can describe the pitfalls, frustrations and potential disasters as well as the successes. Identifying Legitimate Opportunities Even after thinking about their interests and abilities, people can find it difficult to focus on a business idea. They make the mistake of thinking that the process is very complex, and it’s true that it can be confusing when faced with the deluge of money-making opportunities advertised everywhere. Every day, dozens of newspaper ads offer businesses for sale. Every month, at least three magazines trumpet their “astounding” business opportunities. More than 2,000 companies offer franchises. Direct selling organizations aim to recruit you. How do you identify the legitimate opportunities? The secret is simple: Remember that the best business ideas come from the combination of your interests, abilities and past experiences, matched to a set of definable needs in the marketplace. Don’t be fooled by promises of quick wealth – it takes hard work to start and run a business. A good business idea is likely in be straightforward and simple. The more exotic your idea, the more you must spend — in time and money – just to explain your idea to potential buyers. Many of the most successful new businesses are based on commonly known business ideas executed uncommonly well. Determine If Your Idea Will Work After some exploration and deliberation, you will have come up with a business idea, or perhaps two. But you know that every day thousands of new business ideas are talked about. How do you determine if your carefully crafted idea will work? At this point, you must take a cold, calculating look at all aspects of your idea. Compare each of your ideas to each other by asking the following questions: What are the three most important things I must do to turn this idea into a business? Do I know how to do them? Is the market for my idea large enough to provide growth? Is there a way that I can reach my potential customers with my sales message? . Can the idea he expanded into additional products or services? Is anyone else in my area doing this business? How many competitors are there, and how close are they to me? You must also carefully estimate how much money you need to get your idea off the ground and how much profit you can realistically expect it to return. Start by writing down every expense necessary to get your business going. Common expenses include: office equipment, machinery; tools, supplies, vehicles, licenses, space rental consultants, franchise fees or royalties, advertising, insurance and employee wages. Next, use library research, interviews with business owners, trade associations, government reports and magazine articles to determine what level or profit an average business in your chosen field generates. Keep in mind that if the return on you investment is no better than you can earn on a certificate of deposit. You might as well keep your money in the bank. What Sacrifices Will Your Business Demand? You should honestly consider the sacrifices you and your family may have to make to allow you to start your own business. Will your spouse have to continue working at a less-than-inspiring job to keep the budget in shape? Will you have to start at home until you can afford to move out? Once you’ve decided upon your business, expect to hear a lot of reasons why it won’t work. For some reason, your friends and family members will typically view your plans with alarm. Because it’s difficult to ignore the opinions of those close to us, these naysayers can destroy a terrific business idea before it ever has a chance to see the light of day. If you truly believe in your idea, you can override the negative feedback you’re likely to get. Remember that there are few opportunities in life more exciting than thinking up your own business idea and bringing it to life. Seven Ways to Come Up With A Dynamite Business Concept Look for Opportunities at Work. Corporations are eliminating operations, thus creating gaps in service. If you can deliver this service, you may be able to start in business with several substantial customers. Become a Better Observer. Carry around a notebook and jot down products and services you can’t find. Note when you don’t get good service or when a product doesn’t deliver what it promises. Can you do better? Re-establish Something That Has Disappeared. There is a tremendous nostalgia boom in America because consumers are basically dissatisfied with today’s level of service. Is there something you enjoyed in the past but which is no longer available in your area? See if others share your interest. Give New Life to the Ordinary. Imagine the perfect setting for a routine service, such as shoe repair or dry cleaning. See if you can bring it to life and still make a profit. Study Trends. TV news programs, magazines and newspapers all report stories that reflect changes in values and lifestyles. Current examples include difficulty in coordinating family schedules, a more conservative investment outlook and an aging population. Uncover a Business within a Business. Some businesses have become so overblown that its essential service has almost been ignored. Resurrect it and create a new demand for an old need. Look Back to your Childhood. Your old hobbies can grow into a business. You can start out with the advantage of an area you already know a lot about. <p><b><a onClick=”javascript:pageTracker. _trackPageview(’/outgoing/article_exit_link’);” href=”http://www. bizstarters. com/pages/ultimate. html”>Learn how to become the master of your own business, in just a few short weeks</a></b></p>
Business Buying Basics – How to Select a Business for Purchase
There is no guarantee when buying a business that it comes with a sound set of financial information or that you will be able to make a success of it. In a small to medium business, financial information is often a record of what the previous owner did, and consequently may not be a valid indicator of how you will perform in the same business. For example, unless you have experience in the hospitality business don’t buy a this type of business. If you have no experience in customer servicing, computer technology or a baking don’t buy these types of businesses just because the current or previous owner was profitable or successful. Here are a few rules you reasonably follow when deciding what business to buy: Selecting a business Try to select a business where you have some level experience and or expertise. Business tends to be highly competitive; being at least as good as your opposition, will give the best advantage for staying in business and being successful. Select an occupation in which you enjoy the tasks and daily activities. Owning and operating a business requires long hours, as well as great enthusiasm. Motivating your staff, and dealing successfully with clients for some can be quite a burden and may become tedious if you do not enjoy or do not have the propensity for these types of tasks. Validate the sellers need to sell Validate as best as you can, the owner’s reason for selling. While there are many legitimate reasons for selling a perfectly good business such as: Retirement Life changes such as marriage or additions to a family Business “burn-out” Sometimes, other reasons such as upcoming lease renewal issues, increased competition as well as many other negative factors may be the primary influence(s) of the pending sale. Having someone with experience working on your side will be advantageous to selecting the appropriate business for you to purchase. Many businesses have problems; the trick is to know what they are, and create a strategy for dealing with them. Financial Considerations and Implications Try to understand and prepare for all financial implications of the business. This includes and is not limited to: Capital required to run the business Cost of purchasing the business Capital to finance stock Debts Overheads. Working capital requirements vary greatly between different business types: The financial requirements for a retail business are vastly different than those of a wholesaling business. The cash flow characteristics of a business as well as any seasonality are of paramount concern. Profits shown in end of year accounts do not necessarily mean cash is available at critical times. Necessary costs such as taxes, living expenses or advertising costs may produce a negative cash flow during a slow season. Try to leave enough financial reserves at start up for unforeseen expenditures and living expenses. Some businesses may experience a downturn at change of ownership due to various reasons. Negotiating the previous owners limited continued involvement may help to lessen some of the impacts of new management/ownership issues. Having the previous owner available until you “hit your stride” in running the business and/or the public/customers become “comfortable” with you as the new owner/manager may help lessen these impacts. This does not imply avoiding the go ahead purchase of the business, but having plans and contingencies in dealing with these types of events may help in the success of the business. Funding for the purchase, operation of the business, as well as any planned growth or development of the business should all be considered and qualified prior to making an offer for a business. Staff Considerations Meet any and all key employees prior to purchase. Knowing whether they intend to stay, or if there will be major personality clashes will give you additional insight on your start up issues. In some cases, sellers may not allow you to speak with employees until the purchase negotiations have advanced to contract signing. To avoid this obstacle have your agent add appropriate provisions/contingencies in the purchase agreement. Making Changes Once purchased, new owners begin planning and making significant changes to the business. Try to avoid any major changes to the business during this period, unless you are 100% sure of what the outcome will be. Minimizing or implementing business changes slowly, will often effect a smoother transition and lessen the impact to your customers and your businesses success. When purchasing an existing business, you are not only purchasing a physical location and inventory, but also the customers, good name and reputation of that business. Following the previous owner’s proven success methods, will offer you a significant advantage in making the business “Yours”. Summary Using qualified help, such as a commercial real estate agent or business broker during your search, investigation and purchase for a business will help to minimize many of the negative impacts of your purchase. When buying a business, it is of great value to be diligent and honest with yourself in your assessments of the financial responsibilities as well as your own ability and areas of experience in running the business. © Copyright 2008 Jennifer MacKay.
Business Consultants – Business Consultancy – Professional Advice is Important
Business consultancy and Business consultants are as varied and dynamic as their client requirements. Business Consultants can be individuals or organisations in the public, private or non-profit sectors and provide professional business consultancy services, skills and in-depth knowledge to solve client problems or meet specific business goals. The expertise of business consultants and business consultancies across many disciplines delivers enhanced economic performance, and in many cases, may have a global impact. Organizations and companies, big and small, can and should hire services of business consultants for many reasons, including getting external and objective advice, access to the business consultants expertise, or simply as extra one-time temporary assistance during a project, where hiring of permanent and salaried employees is not essential. Due to their exposure to different situations and problems and their relationships with numerous companies and organizations, business consultancies are more aware of an industry’s “Best Practices”. Many management and business consultants or business consultancy may be selected by a company or organization to fulfill certain business requirements that cannot be successfully undertaken by the company due to lack of time and or resources. The company may have more functional expertise than the business consultant, but the consultant or consultancy can provide a powerful benefit and improve their performance. Business Consultants can also use their independence to manage difficult or political situations on behalf of the company or organization, often using expertise in change management and deep knowledge of human resource. In many cases, business consultants or business consultancies may be hired by a company for their technical expertise or to gain independent and innovative overviews to identify areas of improvement and development. Business consultants or a Business Consultancy provides services across a variety of industries and industrial sectors, with advice in strategy, programme management, operations, human resources, change management. Business Consultants may work within business consultancy firms that specialize in business consulting or may be a part of larger organizations that provide wider services such as accountancy, auditing, and IT development. Services can range from existing business support and development to skills assessment. Whether you are an existing company, organization, or small business, or an entrepreneur thinking of starting a business, a business consultant or a business consultancy is an invaluable asset. It’s not difficult to find an individual business consultant or a business consultancy firm, you just have to search online and you will find many business consultancy firms, providing a number of services and offering varied expertise. If you are starting a new business or enterprise and require expert advice with cost as a major factor, then an individual business consultant is what you should be looking for. But an established company or organization can afford to hire a business consultancy firm with multiple advisers. There are many sites and companies online which assist you in finding the right business consultancy at the right price – no obligations. If you require Business Services or require assistance in finding a Manufacturing Consultant Leeds in your area, please do visit our site. Our service is FREE for business owners and Managers.
Using Internet Opportunities to Expand Your Business
Managing your business effectively in this emerging high-speed business world depends on how fast you gather, manage and utilise relevant information in your core business area. Even if you have not started your business, relevant information at your fingertips is what you would require to move your business. Do you want to raise capital for your business? What if I show you a way to go about it? How fast you gather and use feedbacks from your customers in order to improve your product or services, the marketing strategies being employed to deliver your goods and services, inventory management and other business processes, differentiate your business from competition. Information should continuously flow as fast as possible within your workplace, among your employees and also outside your business for efficiency and effectiveness. In our financial sector for example, I watch with rapt attention the keen competition going on among the banks. The ones that will be on top will be ones that have fully integrated information technology into every area of their business. The speed at which they get information from the market, disseminate it among their knowledge staff, analyse it and provide an answer to the customers’ need will be the distinguishing factor amongst them. This can only be achieved with a robust digital system. The different departments or sections of your business should have relevant information to aid decision making, on time. For example, the production department of a business should have the right information to act on the quality of goods being produced and how it suits the customers’ demand, if such information is not made available in good time, they will not deliver their job effectively and by extension get to the market before their competitors. This reduces efficiency and profitability in that business. Relevant information about your business can be at your fingertips through the use of digital technology. It helps you get information quickly from many sources and to analyse that information from many perspectives too. This for big as well as small businesses simply means the use of the internet, an email system, a software application and a website. Managers and owners of businesses should recognise the strategic importance of using these tools. The internet for example, has made it possible for businesses to share information, have business collaborations and also embrace e-commerce on the world wide space. Indigenous software applications that will help organise your work and ensure that time and energy are not wasted on routine chores, should be employed. With these tools in hand, businesses will become more effective in their service delivery. They will have the unlimited opportunity to partner with experts all over the world thereby making them much bigger and better. The multiplier effect of using these web tools will be a strong and viral economy for Nigeria. Let me ask you, in your business, how well have you employed the use of the internet in getting information and marketing your product and services? How are you using technology to improve your business? To fully incorporate a digital workplace in your business, majority of the paper works should be stored on the computer in retrievable formats; the use of emails and online tools encouraged. Your work place should be ‘paperless’. A Paperless Workplace Makes Your Business Effective Michael Hammer and James Champy, in the book: Reengineering Your Business said “It is sobering to reflect on the extent to which the structure of our business processes has been dictated by the limitations of the file and folders”. A paperless office can be regarded as a workplace where all the paper works are replaced by storing them on computers and on the web. The paper processes are replaced by digital processes with the use of computers, the internet, intranet, softwares and email facilities. This doesn’t mean here that it is the computers that are going to do the thinking for your business, for example, you still need to find answers to what customers think about your product, the problems they want you to solve for them, where the new market is in your business and other vital questions. What the system does for you is that it provides relevant statistics in good time for you to work with and think out the solution to questions you have at hand within a short time. The idea of a paperless office is necessary to remove the high heap of papers and files which characterises our establishments and businesses. Most times it becomes difficult to find relevant information when needed. Going through the heaps of reports to find marketing information, invoices or sales number to work with becomes cumbersome. Some of the advantages of having a paperless workplace are that -It removes delays caused by paperwork – It reduces the incidence of lost documents either through fire or other means. -It removes bureaucracy in our offices and business. -It makes for efficiency in business, relevant data are kept in view for the knowledge workers to work with and thereby concentrating on customer needs, how to solve them, and value added services. -It will reduce the paper consumption in our businesses. -Routine processes of a business can be automated with software applications removing wasted time and energy for knowledge workers and this also encourages software development in Nigeria. -This eliminates administrative bottlenecks in business. -This helps business to perceive and react to its environment to sense competitive challenges and customer needs and how to provide timely responses to that. To achieve this for small businesses is simple, have a website for your business, use the internet to access relevant information and opportunity in your area of business, use the email service to disseminate information within and outside your workplace over the intranet and the internet. The intranet is a network designed to organise and share information and also carry out digital business transactions within the company. It has features associated with the internet like the web pages, browsers, email, newsgroups and mailing lists but it is accessible only to those of the organisation. Encourage your staff to use email services to communicate, reports should be sent to them through the email before a meeting. This will give them the opportunity to analyse data and information before hand and make their contributions during meetings. With this, time being wasted in meetings will also be reduced. Find opportunities to market your goods and services online (e-commerce), store information in databases and use software to handle routine duties and integrate every data to suit your business. You don’t have to be an expert before you get things right in this perspective, just know what the use of internet and technology generally will do for your business and hire an expert to put them in place for your business advantage. It is not only businesses that need this; government establishments should also be digitalised so that vital information can be within the reach of businesses and individuals. To show you how important this is in a nation and its growth, Ghana was given an award recently for embracing e-government fully in Africa by the United Nations. We should get this right as soon as possible and improve on the way businesses are being done. visit my web site http://fellynice. RejuvenateTour. com http://fellynice. MySecretAdvantage. com
Essential Management Principles for Every Small Business
I have read, over my business career, well over 10,000 different articles and lists about how anyone can be successful with a small business be it an independent business or a franchise. Many well intentioned and intelligent consultants I have come across professionally believe that a great idea with a great marketing scheme and superior desire can make anyone successful. Do yourself a favor and tell the next person spewing this nonsense that they are absolutely wrong! The success or failure of the vast majority of all small businesses has little to do with the desire, marketing scheme or the great idea that created the business. While these three items must be present in every successful business, solid fundamental management principles will allow a small business to prosper and succeed. Every successful company, be it a small, medium or large business, uses the same set of management principals. The size of the business determines the individuals principals used and the sophistication of the principle. As an example, a small business normally has informal and perhaps even unwritten employee hiring guidelines. A medium sized company has a legally approved, comprehensive employee manual with employee hiring guidelines as a separate section. A large global business has an entire department writing several employee manuals in several languages with employee hiring guidelines based upon legal and social issues in each country. However, the common sense management principal that all companies should have a fair, consistent and applicable employment program must be used by every company. As I have spent the vast majority of my career with small and medium sized businesses, here is a simple and select set of management principles that every small and medium business should follow to ensure success and profitability: A good accounting department with timely monthly financial statements provides the basis for all management decisions. Any business owner or officer who believes purely in his or her “gut” feel, is running what will be a failed business. Regardless of the business size, every owner and senior executive must have valid data to confirm the decisions their “gut” tells them to make. Your financial statements are a factual record of your business history and we must all clearly understand our history so we do not repeat the mistakes of the past. How can you determine whether your recent marketing campaign is a success unless you see and evaluate the financial results? We have all heard stories about the marketing campaign that brought many new customers to the company but killed the company because the advertising expense was greater than the profit margin on the new sales. A business owner does not need an accounting degree but should know enough to understand and participate in the financial information review. Running a small business based on the cash balance in the business checking account also violates this management principle and will severely inhibit the growth and success of the business. Unless you want to remain a “mom and pop” business forever, good accounting information is a requirement. Standardize and automate all routine functions. Have you ever noticed that most successful business people have a routine for most of their daily functions? They have staff meetings at the same time, they want all reports in a specific format, they want all PC’s and software to be the same in the office and they want the external phone calls to be answered with a specific greeting. By standardizing all routine functions, successful business people do not have to think about or manage these functions. They can concentrate their time and efforts on managing non routine situations. This same principle also applies to your business. I personally know a company that, 10 years ago, had a credit department with 15 employees and 3 managers who made many decisions daily. Today, that company has doubled its sales and now has a credit department consisting of 5 employees, one manager and a set of software programs that manages electronic payments and even sends out reminder letters and emails to customers. Review and analyze the Balance Sheet before the Profit and Loss Statement. Your monthly P & L tells you whether you were successful last month from your operations but your Balance Sheet tells you what shape your business is in and what you can do in the future. I have seen a company that doubled sales one year and closed their doors less than six months later. I have also seen a business that went bankrupt even though their P & L’s showed reasonable success. The company Balance Sheet shows how the company uses its daily operations to fund the long term success of the business. Analyzing Fixed Assets, Accounts Receivable, Long Term Debt and Retained Earnings will give us the long term view for our company. It is not as exciting as analyzing our new customers and product offerings but is necessary for the long term. Business Planning and Budgeting will allow you to slow down the daily business fires and take advantage of opportunities. There are an unusual number of small and medium businesses that do not work hard at either annual or strategic planning and budgeting. Most are too busy fighting fires and struggling to keep up with daily business activity. There is no time for planning and budgeting in their 80 hours work weeks. We have all been in this position. The unfortunate issue here is that the fire fighting and long weeks will never slow down or cease until some planning and budgeting is put in place. The need for planning and budgeting becomes more intense as a business grows due to your inability to “manage by walking around. ” The planning and budgeting can start simple and will grow naturally as the business expands. This management principle will allow all employees to see the vision and the focus of the business which will start to reduce the daily fires that pop up. The greatest advantage of planning and budgeting is that it allows every business owner to evaluate quickly and easily how an unexpected opportunity might be of benefit to the business. I have talked to many business owners who stumbled across a sudden and potentially great opportunity such as a competitor for sale, a good supplier needing a partner, a potential new customer that would immediately double sales or a potential new product that would require an entirely new set of tools and equipment. These opportunities happen to all business owners regularly but many also go away quickly. Those companies that have a good plan and budget in place can evaluate these opportunities quickly and easily to determine if the new opportunity fits into the company’s long term plans. These companies also have the ability to quickly approach a bank with solid financial proformas if additional capital is needed. It isn’t a sale unless you collect. Most small and medium businesses spend way too much time in the sales process and far too little time with the collection process. Most companies are willing to pay a six figure salary to a salesman who can generate tremendous sales for the company and, at the same time, put an entry level accounting clerk in charge of collection with little or no oversight and procedures. The company borrows more and more money to increase sales while an accounting clerk with no customer service experience struggles to collect. The sales department in every business must have a part in the collection process and the company must have a strong, fair and customer oriented collection process to ensure that a sale really means money in the bank. This process must always start before the sale is made. Collecting information up front to determine whether the potential customer is able to pay and ensuring the potential customer clearly understands the credit terms and payment requirement will benefit all parties. All good potential customers will appreciate this process because we all enjoy dealing with quality companies. I have never found any company that was unwilling to pay for quality products and services when everyone understood the terms and requirements. The credit department must also have a good set of processes and procedures to ensure that the payment process flows smoothly and efficiently. Supplier employee turnover, cash flow issues and other unexpected issues stop or slow down the payment process. The credit department must, in a customer oriented fashion, work to keep our cash flowing. Run the business as if it your grandchildren will take it over. Every business is a living and vibrant organization that has many similarities to our children. Your business starts out as an infant and learns to crawl and eventually walk. We would never make a decision for our child that does not take into account the child’s future and we should not do this with our business either. Working with a supplier who has inferior quality but the cheapest price might be a great short term cash solution for our company but will eventually run off our customers and destroy our business. How many times has a business lost all its records because it decided it couldn’t afford computer backups or a fire alarm system on its warehouse? Have you hired an employee before you had them take a drug test? I even once jumped at the chance to hire a salesman from a competitor because I thought he would be able to bring over many customers. Unfortunately, he cost too much and didn’t bring over any good paying customers at all. There is no such thing as a good short cut for efficient management principals and the long term success of your organization. Hire the smartest and best people. How many of us have hired our friends, the salesman we thought was a bargain, the bookkeeper who spoke the best during the interview or the manager we thought was most like us? Many small and medium sized businesses are littered with employees who were hired for these reasons because small businesses can’t afford high wages and all the fringe benefit packages that large companies can afford. We tend to hire the best we think we can get. We need to set our expectations higher and use our planning process to find perfect employees. The first issue is that your company must have a good annual plan as well as a logical 5 year plan on where the company will be. Your company can then lay out what employees will be needed during this 5 year period. Now that we have defined what employees and what responsibilities are required, we need to find the individuals who meet these requirements and not just who we can afford today. I have always tried to hire people who are smarter and have more experience than I have at the specific position. Any owner who believes he is the smartest individual in every area will never be able to hire the right people. A company will never be greater than its weakest employee so we must always hire the best. The last company I worked with laid out a plan showing they were going to need their first CPA in 5 years. After 3 years, they told me they hired this CPA and were very surprised because this individual had other job opportunities with large national firms who were offering huge benefits. However, this small firm could offer professional growth and responsibility not available at the larger company. The vast majority of good employees prefer to have a more responsible position with a smaller company with a grand future than a less responsible position with a large company. You can grow yourself out of business. Cash is king in business and those who recognize this fact will succeed and prosper. I have seen far more businesses that grow too fast with no good business plan and are forced to close their doors or find a quick buyer. Companies that are struggling watch their cash daily and doing what they need to keep the doors open. However, those companies doubling their sales see huge profits on their monthly financial statements and get caught up in the emotion and success. They watch their Accounts Receivable double, their Inventory double because they must buy much more product, their employees double because they must take care of these sales and suddenly they do not have the ability to make this week’s payroll because they have no cash in their checking account. Their company literally grew itself out of business which many small and medium business owners have trouble understanding until they have lived through it. The culture of every business is as important as its mission. As mentioned earlier, a business is a living and breathing organization. The culture of every business is as important to the overall success of the company as the products and services offered. The owner of the business cannot delegate this function and must be involved. There is no right or wrong here as the business culture is a reflection of the quality, morals and ethics of its owner. A successful company’s culture is not a constantly changing but evolves based upon the growth and expansion of the organization. Constantly changing a company’s culture is a sure way to close a business. A company with a strict dress code, time clocks that are strictly enforced, and many processes and procedures is no better than another company with no dress code, few processes, and telecommuting for employees. The only difference is the type of employees they retain and the way they do business. Your quality competitors are essential to your long term success. You can stop laughing now because this is really a fact that every successful company understands. This is an unusual concept but one that great businessmen and women all embrace. Competition is a wonderful concept in every free market economy and quality competition makes us all better. Quality competitors push us to come up with quality improvements, quality products and services and ensure that we have a quality customer oriented operation. We have all seen businesses spring up offering a 50% price reduction for a cheap knock off of our products. Our sales drop and we spend time and effort away from our core business chasing this situation. They stay in business for a short period of time and accomplish nothing more than causing our customers to question our industry. Quality competitors push us all toward greatness and there is plenty of room in every industry for multiple organizations. Outsourcing reduces costs and improves your weaknesses. Many individuals hear the jokes about the language issues at large company call centers in India or the Philippines and tell themselves they will never make that mistake. However, that might be one situation that is not really a mistake. A good IT programmer in the U. S. can cost upwards of $100,000 annually with payroll taxes, fringe benefits, etc. That employee in India with the exact same intelligence, skills and experience can cost as little as $30,000 annually. The management principle here is that we should all concentrate on our strengths and outsource everything else where feasible. No business person thinks twice about using an outside tax accountant to do our Federal and State taxes. This is a highly technical area that changes constantly. Most of us also have an outside legal firm. Why do we primarily limit our use of outsourcing to those two areas?? Today, there are professional payroll firms, employee leasing firms, credit and collection firms, IT and Web programming firms and marketing firms. These companies work with many business organizations, stay on top of industry best practices and can better stay on top of the technical changes in their area of expertise. The only area of any company that I advise against outsourcing is the area that is crucial to the success of your company. Never allow the core of your success to get outside your control. As an example, if your company has a proprietary marketing scheme or a customer database or an engineering method or a production process that is key to your success, do not let it out of your control.
What Exactly is a Business Incubator?
So what exactly is a business incubator? A business incubator is an established professional environment that has been put together to help nurture and grow small business start-ups. They help entrepreneurs with the early stages of small businesses development. But not all business start-ups are suited to joining an incubator program. The question is would it be appropriate for yours?
To begin with business incubators are typically divided into categories. These categories focus on the type of business start-ups they are looking to attract. Most everyone has heard of Silicon Valley. Well their goal is to attract new technology start-ups. Other categories include manufacturing and service businesses as well as women and minority owned start-ups. There are also incubators that target niche business and mixed use businesses.
Many small business start-ups often lack serious funding when they are first started. Their ideas are not fully developed and planned out. And as with any business venture a lack of resources can be its downfall. A business incubator provides facilities with lower rents as well as providing access to basic business equipment like copy and fax machines. The sharing of office space and equipment can help reduce the initial costs of starting a business. And by sharing these ongoing expenses it can help keep your operating costs low.
To help overcome your own lack of education and experience a business incubator can provide you with consulting services, mentoring and an atmosphere inductive to learning new things. Everyone around you is an aspiring entrepreneur and business person. They bring their own varied experience and education to the program where your business is a member just as you do. And with many such people together in one place many things can be learned together. All business incubators have the same goal, to help laaunch and grow small businesses. Joining a business incubator often can help propel a business along the path to success which otherwise might not be possible.
Being in a business incubation program can also help to attract investment in your business. Because your business is now an ongoing concern it has the ability to show potential investors more than just an idea. You are able to show what your business looks like in action instead of just telling people about through business plans and projections.
Business incubation is meant to be truly flexible to help meet the needs of the entrepreneur. Some statistics state that small businesses that graduate from a business incubator have a success rate of 87% compared with most small businesses that average less than 50%. They may hold the key to your success in growing your own small business. Business Incubators are being used to accomplish many different objectives, especially those that small businesses excel at like creating jobs, developing new and innovative ideas, helping to diversify local economies, and creating a thriving small business sector within different cities.
Becoming a member of a business incubator is not ideal for everyone but for many aspiring entrepreneurs it does offer many possibilities while allowing you to take fewer risks. Not all business ventures succeed but an incubator can allow you to test the waters of your idea. You can see if it really is feasible and if it is you will the ability to move ahead with it. So if you have an idea for a small business and want to give it a try you should look into what business incubator programs exist with your community. It might just provide you with a chance your wouldn’t necessarily have.
How You Can Separate Your Business Finances From Your Personal Money
Separating business funds from personal finances should be every business owner’s concern. Surprisingly, not many entrepreneurs take this matter into serious consideration. For instance, many small business owners and home based business entrepreneurs prefer to use their personal credit cards with their business expenses thinking that it makes no difference. But a wise business owner should think about the long term complications that combining personal and business funds in just one account could cause later on. At the start, you may find that using your personal credit card is enough. But as your business begins to grow and accumulate expenses, having a separate business account is indispensable. It will make a big difference not only in managing your business finances, but also in making finance-related decisions. In this article, let’s talk about the advantages of using business credit cards for your business expenses. Business Credit Cards Means Easy Management Why would it be easier to manage business finances using business credit cards? Because all your expenses are automatically included in your summary of accounts so you can be assured that you won’t miss a single purchase no matter how big or small that purchase was. You will be provided with monthly billing statements, along with quarterly and yearly summaries of your account. These account summaries contain a detailed list of all the purchases you’ve made during the past months or the entire year. Purchases are also categorized so you can use it as reference to your bookkeeping and accounting tasks. Filing your business taxes is definitely made easier with the help of business credit card account statements. Add to this, many business credit cards include the option to access your account online. This is an enormous help for a busy business owner as it enables convenient tracking of business accounts at any time. Even as you work on your desk, you can simply log in to your online account and do your checking within just a few minutes. Account summaries are also downloadable so you can use them along with your accounting software. Build Business Credit with the help of Business Credit Cards Another important advantage of getting a business credit card is to build a separate credit history for your business. Don’t forget to register with a business credit bureau such as D&B or Experian to begin establishing your business credit immediately. By using your business credit card and keeping up with your payments on time, you can be assured that you will be building excellent credit history for your company. Every business is confronted with financial challenges sooner or later. You may not need financial assistance at the moment but by the time you need to apply for a business loan to help you with your business projects, having a solid business credit history will help you secure an approval more easily. Aside form getting easy approval with your applications, having excellent business credit also guarantees that you’ll be offered better rates and terms by lenders. In summary, getting a business credit card is beneficial in two ways- for separating personal from business finances and for building up a separate credit history for your business. If you’re a business owner or planning on starting up a business of your own, this matter is definitely worth the thought.