Poland Hotels Booking

As many small business owners know, financing is crucial to the financial health of their enterprise. While some small business owners have the resources to launch their business, most look to the credit market for financial help. Indeed, the banking industry is an important source to gain necessary capital. However, many entrepreneurs may not realize that that applying for commercial credit requires a great deal of preparation. Here are five tips to assist entrepreneurs in improving their chances of getting credit approval.

Tip #1: Decide on the type of commercial loan that is needed. Loan options include short-term loans, intermediate loans, long-term loans, and lines of credit.

Short-term loans are usually for less than a year. They typically provide interim working capital for a business temporarily in need of cash.

Intermediate loans are often used for business set-up, the purchase of new equipment, expansion, or an increase in working capital. This loan can be anywhere from 1-3 years.

Long-term loans are for major capital improvements, acquiring fixed assists, and business start-ups. The loan term is usually from 3-5 years and repayment installments are on a monthly or quarterly basis.

A line of credit gives a small business the ability to borrow money repeatedly, up to the credit limit. The lender will usually perform a review once a year, at which time the borrower is asked to update financial statements.

Tip #2: Make sure all paper work is in order. Applying for commercial loans can be very tedious and requires much more documentation than applying for consumer credit. So, the key is to be prepared. In addition, entrepreneurs who have carefully put together the needed paperwork to include the loan purpose, the amount of money needed and for how long, and a repayment schedule proposal will be viewed more favorably by many lenders.

Tip #3: Develop a well thought out proposal. The proposal should include the loan purpose, the amount of money needed and for how long, and a repayment schedule proposal. Points to include are the business description that tells the nature of the business, product and service, a personal profile, and a business plan that outlines the corporate strategy for the next three to five years. Additional points to add are supporting documentation that supports the information outlined in the proposal, and collateral that will be used to secure the loan. Financial statements, both personal and for the business, are important as well.

Tip #4: Seek advice! It is important for entrepreneurs to talk with someone who has gone through the process of obtaining commercial credit before a lender is approached. This is especially important for the first time buyer. Entrepreneurs can approach mentors, qualified business counselors, business support groups, and the U.S. Small Business Administration. This step will increase the chances of getting a favorable credit decision.

Tip #5: Be prepared to pursue various options. Sometimes, financial institutions will say no. Once again, obtaining credit can be difficult, especially for entrepreneurs who are first-time borrowers. However, since financial institutions have different standards, an inability to meet the standard of one lender does not mean one fails the standards of all. It is highly possible that credit approvals can be gained with another lender. So, it is important to keep seeking until a lender is found.

Obtaining credit is necessary for many small businesses. Knowing what steps to take in this process can greatly increase an approval from a financial institution. Now, put these five tips into practice and be on your way to getting the credit you need for your business venture.

About the author:
Monique Hawkins

When someone mentions business planning we have been conditioned to think about writing a business plan. There are hundreds of books and articles, tons of software, an army of consultants, and a multitude government programs to help you write a business plan. There are virtually no resources to help you set up what today’s business environment really demands – a continuous, ongoing planning system.

A commonly accepted theory is that for a business to survive and prosper it must be flexible and nimble. It must be able to turn on a dime as conditions warrant. Having a written five-year plan is not part of this picture. In fact, trying to follow a long-term plan during rampant change is not logical. It is applying linear thinking to a non-linear situation. It just doesn’t work.

Having a formal, written business plan is so accepted as being crucial to success that there haven’t been many studies or surveys to test this premise. If business plans were such a wonderful thing, there would be a significant and conclusive difference between businesses that have them and those that don’t. Interviews of 100 founders of companies on 1989s “INC 500” list of fastest growing private companies in the U.S. found only 28 percent had “full-blown” business plans. The 1993 AT&T Small Business Study found that 59 percent of small businesses that grew over the previous two years used a formal business plan. A 1994 survey of the country’s fastest growing companies found 23 percent lacked a business plan. “The Relationship between Written Business Plans and the Failure of Small Businesses in the U.S.,” by Dr. Stephen Perry, surveyed 152 failed and 152 non-failed small businesses in 1997. He found that 64 percent of the non-failed firms had no written business plan. He also found that non-failed firms had more extensive written plans than failed firms, 23 percent compared to 9 percent, respectively.

As you can see the results of studies and surveys are all across the board and don’t prove anything. Clearly, a significant percentage of successful businesses don’t have written business plans. None of these studies reveal the nature of the process that created the plan. Was it the result of an annual process with occasional updates or an ongoing, continual process? As Professor Albert Shapero said, “Companies that plan do better than companies that don’t, but they never follow their plan.”

The focus needs to be on the PROCESS not on the plan. If a continual, ongoing planning process is in place, a written business plan is just not important. Writing a business plan without a planning system in place is a massive effort that is done very infrequently. Many businesses write three to five year plans and update them annually. The plans are reviewed periodically during each year to analyze the plan vs. actual variances. Little, if any, thought is given to strategy between the annual updates. Strategy should be the focus everyday. Setting up a planning system allows and sometimes forces you to focus on strategy.

A planning system consists of two functions. One is a goal setting and attaining process, and the other is a trend watching or environment scanning process. Setting up a planning system takes several steps. The first and foremost task is to set aside or make time for planning on a regular, ongoing basis. It must become part of your routine, not an occasional event that can be easily postponed. In the evaluation phase, the owner or management team and the company are analyzed. From the analysis, key or critical areas of the business are identified. These areas are filtered down to focus on the most important ones. Performance measures are determined and systems to gather and process the necessary data are set up, if needed. A base of current performance is used to set goals.

Now the regular, ongoing stuff begins. Strategies are formulated, tested, implemented, monitored, and reworked until the goals are achieved. Each planning session is split between working on strategies and trend watching. As goals are achieved, the goal setting and strategy formulation process begins again.

Let’s put the focus back where it belongs on continuous, ongoing planning instead of writing business plans. As Karl Albrecht said in his book Corporate Radar, “The majority is not always right, the conventional wisdom is not always wise, and the accepted doctrine could well be flawed. The more fashionable an idea, the more it is likely to be exempt from critical evaluation. Breakthrough thinking sometimes calls for contradicting the most widely held assumptions and beliefs.”

About the author:
David E. Coffman

Analyzing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) of a business is a well-established tool that is widely used by academics, consultants, and advisors. Although it is a simple concept, business owners often struggle when trying to use it because it is so broad. It is difficult to determine where to start, what questions to ask, and where to focus. The obvious problems get attention while many other important issues get overlooked. SWOT analysis is a great tool, but its effective use requires additional structure.

Strengths and weaknesses relate to internal factors, while opportunities and threats cover external ones. The internal factors can be divided into five categories: management, workforce, sales and marketing, operations, and financial. The external factors are also divided into five categories: threat of new entrants, bargaining power of suppliers, bargaining power of customers, threat of rivalry from competitors, and threat of substitution.

To approach the analysis in a structured way, prepare a checklist using the categories mentioned above. Identify factors within each category that are important to your business. Under management for example, a major weakness for virtually every small business is relying too heavily on the owner. What would happen to the business if something happened to the owner? In the workforce category a factor could be employee turnover and the availability of new hires. The threat of new entrants might include the possibility of a big box retailer opening near your business. The bargaining power of suppliers and customers categories should consider the possibility of losing a major supplier or customer. Come up with several factors for each category to complete the checklist. It is important that you do not try to rate or solve each issue as you identify them. If you do, you will get bogged down on each factor and never complete the analysis.

Once the checklist is complete, you should rate each factor based on its importance to your business. Use an alphabetical scale from A to E, where A = very important, B = important, C = some importance, D = little importance, and E = not important. Next rate each factor based on proficiency (internal) or vulnerability (external). Use a numerical scale from 1 to 5, where 1 = very proficient or not vulnerable, 2 = proficient or little vulnerability, 3 = average proficiency or some vulnerability, 4 = poor proficiency or vulnerable, and 5 = deficient or very vulnerable.

The factors with the lowest letter and highest number (A5) are the biggest weaknesses or threats. The ones with the lowest letter and lowest number (A1) are the biggest strengths or opportunities.

Using this structured approach makes a SWOT analysis possible and practical for any small business. To make this process worthwhile you must use this information to take action. Work to fix the worst problems first, prepare for the biggest risks, take advantage of the best opportunities, and build your secondary strengths.

About the author:
David E. Coffman

Your lunchtime thoughts are comprised of brilliant marketing strategies and anxiety over bill payments. You’re the CEO, human resources director, janitor, and administrative assistant all wrapped up into one. You open the doors at dawn and lockup when it’s time to wrap up for the day.

Welcome to the world of small business ownership. Lovely, isn’t it?

Of course, the rewards of small business ownership are quite high. Your focus determines your reality and your success, you never have to answer to an angry boss, and (for most owners) you get to work in an industry of your choice. There’s an obvious trade-off with the long hours, multiple responsibilities, and occasional panic attacks of “how am I going to get this done?”

Not to worry. You’re not alone. In fact, almost all small business owners face the same issues you do. And many have survived and lived on to tell the tale (in small business seminars, in fact!), so don’t get discouraged. Here are several easy tips to get your business head out of the clouds.

Become an expert at time management: If you went to college, chances are you learned how to balance midterm studying, paper writing, socializing, and plain old partying into a somewhat successful formula. Dust off those time management skills, because they’ll get your small business running in an efficient fashion. A great way to do this is to use the tools that come with modern office software. Any sort of email program that features a calendar, such as Outlook, will allow you to track appointments, follow-up emails/phone calls, and important dates. It will also allow you to create daily to-do lists while maintaining an organized list of your contacts. You can also use spreadsheet software, such as Excel, to keep track of the progress of multiple tasks, calculate and crunch numbers, and store tables upon tables of information. Get this software, load it on to your office computer or laptop and use it religiously. It will organize your life and allow you to attend to the important things for your business.

Contracts are good things: Here’s a hint – if you’re not an expert at something, don’t do it yourself. Your budgets are stretched and your time and sanity are running low. How about a hired hand? From virtual administrative assistants to business planners to copywriters, hiring out help on a contract basis can free you from the logistics of running a business and allow you to stay focused on what your business really does. Obviously, hiring a professional costs money, but it also means a separate set of eyes specializing in something that you’re not the most adept at. The process could even pay for itself. If the quality of work these contract professionals bring in generate revenue by allowing you to work harder at what you do best.

Seize every opportunity: When you’re a small business, you’ve got to get creative with your marketing. Fortunately, every single moment and action presents itself as a time to sell your business. Writing an email? Then attach your business description to your signature and casually mention your business. Going to the library? Bring some flyers and tack them on the bulletin board. Going to get office supplies? Ask the supply store manager how you can place your business cards on the counter. Every scenario grants you the opportunity to reach another person. And even if its just one person, that someone can tell a friend, who may tell two friends, and so on. Word-of-mouth and grass-roots marketing can be a powerful tool, and it’s cheap – so use it!

Keep your chin up: It might be a cliché, but it’s true – the best way to have run a successful business is to stay positive. Keeping a positive mindset affects you, the ones you work with, and your customers. No one likes to work when they’re down in the dumps. But if you’re chipper, motivated, and ready to go, you’ll inspire yourself and the ones around you. It may sound trite, but it’s the truth. Maintain a positive attitude and work hard and the results will present themselves!

While running a small business is consuming and exhausting, don’t forget that you also need to stay mentally and physically healthy. These tricks will help you run your business more efficiently, but it doesn’t excuse you from running yourself into the ground. Remember to find an outlet for the physical and emotional stress that come with running a small business. You’ll feel refreshed and energized and ready to work hard and efficiently – and that means more business and more profits!

For more information on the topics covered in this article, please visit http://www.mikechenwriting.com/resources.html

About the author: Mike Chen

Your lunchtime thoughts are comprised of brilliant marketing strategies and anxiety over bill payments. You’re the CEO, human resources director, janitor, and administrative assistant all wrapped up into one. You open the doors at dawn and lockup when it’s time to wrap up for the day.

Welcome to the world of small business ownership. Lovely, isn’t it?

Of course, the rewards of small business ownership are quite high. Your focus determines your reality and your success, you never have to answer to an angry boss, and (for most owners) you get to work in an industry of your choice. There’s an obvious trade-off with the long hours, multiple responsibilities, and occasional panic attacks of “how am I going to get this done?”

Not to worry. You’re not alone. In fact, almost all small business owners face the same issues you do. And many have survived and lived on to tell the tale (in small business seminars, in fact!), so don’t get discouraged. Here are several easy tips to get your business head out of the clouds.

Become an expert at time management: If you went to college, chances are you learned how to balance midterm studying, paper writing, socializing, and plain old partying into a somewhat successful formula. Dust off those time management skills, because they’ll get your small business running in an efficient fashion. A great way to do this is to use the tools that come with modern office software. Any sort of email program that features a calendar, such as Outlook, will allow you to track appointments, follow-up emails/phone calls, and important dates. It will also allow you to create daily to-do lists while maintaining an organized list of your contacts. You can also use spreadsheet software, such as Excel, to keep track of the progress of multiple tasks, calculate and crunch numbers, and store tables upon tables of information. Get this software, load it on to your office computer or laptop and use it religiously. It will organize your life and allow you to attend to the important things for your business.

Contracts are good things: Here’s a hint – if you’re not an expert at something, don’t do it yourself. Your budgets are stretched and your time and sanity are running low. How about a hired hand? From virtual administrative assistants to business planners to copywriters, hiring out help on a contract basis can free you from the logistics of running a business and allow you to stay focused on what your business really does. Obviously, hiring a professional costs money, but it also means a separate set of eyes specializing in something that you’re not the most adept at. The process could even pay for itself. If the quality of work these contract professionals bring in generate revenue by allowing you to work harder at what you do best.

Seize every opportunity: When you’re a small business, you’ve got to get creative with your marketing. Fortunately, every single moment and action presents itself as a time to sell your business. Writing an email? Then attach your business description to your signature and casually mention your business. Going to the library? Bring some flyers and tack them on the bulletin board. Going to get office supplies? Ask the supply store manager how you can place your business cards on the counter. Every scenario grants you the opportunity to reach another person. And even if its just one person, that someone can tell a friend, who may tell two friends, and so on. Word-of-mouth and grass-roots marketing can be a powerful tool, and it’s cheap – so use it!

Keep your chin up: It might be a cliché, but it’s true – the best way to have run a successful business is to stay positive. Keeping a positive mindset affects you, the ones you work with, and your customers. No one likes to work when they’re down in the dumps. But if you’re chipper, motivated, and ready to go, you’ll inspire yourself and the ones around you. It may sound trite, but it’s the truth. Maintain a positive attitude and work hard and the results will present themselves!

While running a small business is consuming and exhausting, don’t forget that you also need to stay mentally and physically healthy. These tricks will help you run your business more efficiently, but it doesn’t excuse you from running yourself into the ground. Remember to find an outlet for the physical and emotional stress that come with running a small business. You’ll feel refreshed and energized and ready to work hard and efficiently – and that means more business and more profits!

Copyright © 2005 by Mike Chen. Author grants permission to reprint this article as long as the complete Bio and author’s information including website and contact information remains intact. If you would like to receive additional articles, contact Mike Chen
at info@mikechenwriting.com.

About the author: Mike Chen

It has been said that success is rarely easy or quick and that it is only the product of consistent effort which is repetitively applied. This is definitely the case for the small-business owner when trying to become successful in the cutthroat world of marketing. Any successful business depends upon marketing your product or services to the general public and convincing them to spend their hard earned money or time. It is only through persistence and never giving up on your dreams can success be achieved. Within this article, you will find several ideas of how you can maintain perseverance and understand that persistence is indeed a key ingredient in the recipe for a successful small business.

Finish What You Start

Oftentimes people get off to a flying start in their business endeavor, but as time goes by they get side-tracked never finishing what they started. The history of small business is full of great starters but not-so-great finishers. There has never been a great book left half-written, nor a successful business left half-built. The key to finishing what you started is perseverance and commitment. Remember that many people with less talent, less ability and less experience can achieve greater things than those with greater gifts if they commit to the end of what they begin to do.

Don’t Fear It, Face It

Fear is a terrible thing and when applied to running a small business can end in disastrous results. Most people are afraid of rejection or the thought of failure. Fear of rejection will cause people to accept lives of conformity and mediocrity, while fear of failure will lead people to pass up on life changing opportunities. The small business owner will oftentimes have to take chances and risks in order to survive. It is the ones that face their fears of rejection and failure that survive. Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones once said, “The men who try to do something and fail are indefinitely better than those who try to do nothing and succeed.”

Decide to Be Decisive

Everyday we make choices. Most of the time we are not even aware that we are making them. In the world of business, indecisiveness can be fatal. To pursue opportunities for your small business and maximize potential, you have to become decisive. Becoming pro-active in making decisions in the direction of your business and staying the course will be for more successful than waiting for choices to happen and then dealing with the consequences.

Never, Never Give Up

This is the definition of persistence. As one Japanese proverb teaches us, the eventual winners are those who “fall down seven times, gets up eight.” We aren’t losers until we give up. This is definitely true for the small business owner.

Persistence is indeed a key ingredient in the recipe for a successful business. You must stick to your game plan and finish what you start. You must be decisive in what you chose and never fear rejection or failure. And above all, you must never, never give up. One final thought from J.D. Rockefeller, “I do not think there is any quality so essential of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature.”

About the author:
Roger Boatwright

So what’s your small business marketing strategy? I’m willing to bet that close to 85% of the people reading this are scratching their heads now. Many small business owners fail to create a marketing strategy at all, instead focusing on tactics.

Let me give you one of the definitions of strategy from the fine folks at Merriam Webster: a : a careful plan or method : a clever strategem b : the art of devising or employing plans or strategems toward a goal

So a strategy is a plan and the implementation of that plan. Tactics are merely the methods with which which you carry out that plan.

Planning is important in small business marketing for a few reasons:

-Planning helps insure you keep a consistent marketing effort.
-Planning helps you set goals and move towards reaching them.
-Planning helps you set and stick to a budget.

Many small business owners are intimidated by the idea of a marketing plan. They think it needs to be a huge formal document with financials and charts. It can be that, particularly if you are going for funding. However, if you are just in business for yourself, your marketing plan can be very simple.

Here are some items I think it should include:

-Your overall vision, value proposition, and unique selling position
-A list of your target markets, and what you know about them
-Your budget for marketing
-A list of strengths and weaknesses with the customer facing side of your business.
-A list of steps you are going to take (I recommend a marketing calendar)
-There are three ways to increase your revenue, and your plan should take each into account:

1. Increase your number of customers
2. Increase the amount of your average transaction
3. Increase the frequency at which your customers buy from you

Most marketing efforts I encounter focus only on #1. However #1 represents the most expensive, difficult, and slow method for increasing revenues.

Remember that marketing is not just advertising and PR. Your plan should encompass your customers’ entire experience with you. It might include changing the way you answer the phone, more frequent followup calls, cleaning the bathrooms at your store more often, adding plants to your reception area. your plan also might include some kind of customer satisfaction survey, maybe during followup calls or during a visit to your business.

Your plan might also include presenting your products or services better, or repackaging them in different ways. It might have you creating a new brochure, or giving sales training to your staff.

Your plan should include the tactics you want to use, and a budget for each tactic.

There’s an old military aphorism that goes: Even the best possible battle plan has not survived first contact with the enemy. This basically means that the unpredictable always happens - it’s what makes life interesting. Do not be afraid to revise your marketing plan to respond to changing conditions. However, you still need a consistent and intelligent marketing effort.

You should be able to capitalize on new opportunities and respond to new challenges.

Plan and stay consistent - you will outpace most of your competition.

About the author:
J D Moore

We believe that there are 3 factors that drive the success of small businesses.

1) Acquiring start-up capital
2) Finding customers
3) Accounting for, budgeting and controlling sales and expenses

The following resources will help your small business achieve these success factors.

Acquiring Start-Up Capital

An adequate supply of capital is essential as many profitable businesses fail because they don’t have enough cash to pay their employees and suppliers. But what is an adequate supply of capital? The only way to tell is by doing a significant amount of research on your potential market and formally documenting this in a business plan. I’m sure you know that a business plan is a very important document that is crucial to convincing your banker to lend you money.

There are two ways to obtain a business plan.

1) Do it yourself by amending a business plan template, or
2) Hire a professional to do it for you.

Obviously obtain 1) will be a great deal cheaper.

Our research led to a website that has over 60 high quality and free business plan templates. We also found a directory that you can use to easily find a business plan writer in your city – where ever you live in the world.

Finding Customers

Finding customers is a difficult and expensive task for service business owners such as accountants, lawyers and plumbers. We believe that a cost effective marketing strategy for service business owners is to simply give all their personal contacts a few business cards.

Our research led to a few websites that have pre-designed business card templates. We felt that the diversity and quality of these designs was outstanding. In addition, we found that you can obtain a significant saving by finding a printing service on the Internet. We found that you could get 2,000 full color business cards for as little as US $150.

Accounting For, Budgeting and Controlling Revenue and Expenses

Accurate accounting is very important for small business owners. It’s essential that you have timely access to information that could make or break your business. If stocks are running low – you need to know about it. If a large proportion of your debtors haven’t paid – you need to know about it. If you do not react to these situations quickly you may have a situation where you don’t have enough money to pay your employees – or worse still someone is stealing cash out the till.

Our research led to a website that compares and reviews top accounting software for small businesses. The cheapest software cost US $89.99 and the most expensive software cost US $1,499. It was interesting to note that the top 3 ranked websites were not the most expensive and cost between US $250 - US $300.

Hopefully you now have an idea of some of the tools that you can use to grow and maintain your small business. If you would like to benefit from our research please visit our website. We do not charge for this research and offer the content freely on our website.

Telecommunication cost is always an obstacle for small business owners, especially if you need to call domestic or international long distance. The long distance cost factor alone, depending on the type of business you’re in, can make the difference in the success of any small business.

The telecommunication market today is one of the most competitive. Rates for both local, domestic long distance or DLL (long distance in the same country) and international long distance (ILD) are going down every day. The new player in small business phone systems, VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), adds a whole new dimension when it comes to choosing a phone system for your small business or home based business.

There’s so much hype today about VoIP, or Voice over IP, or Voice over Broadband, whatever you want to call it. Everyone’s saying that VoIP is the “future of communication” and that VoIP will replace regular analog phone calls. Is all this true? If it is, how do you, as an entrepreneur, decide how to choose and invest in what’s best for you? Firstly, if you have no idea what VoIP is really about, here’s where you can get educate yourself: http://www.mybusinessvoip.com/start

There are two things you need to consider:

1) Level of investment
2) Cost vs. Quality

To go full out into using VoIP, you’ll need to invest in IP phones, and possibly even in IP PBX. Otherwise, you should go for IP phone adapters, which allow you to maintain whatever system you already have, but also gives you the option of converting some of those phone lines to VoIP. Most entrepreneurs are reluctant to go 100% into VoIP, and yet they still want the benefits that come from it. That’s why IP phone adapters are so popular today. In fact, here’s a list of the most popular providers for comparison: http://www.mybusinessvoip.com/compare

When is comes to quality vs. cost, the direction is pretty clear. Before choosing the proper VoIP phone system for your business, you need to figure out exactly what your business needs. If your business relies heavily on the phone for prospecting customers, providing customer support, or giving out important information through the phone, then you should definitely opt for better quality.

If you use the phone for short communication with your business partners or agents, or any other reason which is NOT your main business function, it would be better to save a little and go with the low cost option. The difference in quality is not very apparent in most cases.

If you are just starting your small business, VoIP phone cards also provide some sort of temporary solution until you can get enough financing to develop a better system. Phone cards usually let you dial international and national long distance at a lower cost because they use either VoIP as the back end provider or through a special promotion or arrangement between telecommunications companies.

Today, you can even get “virtual phone cards” which allow you to make phone calls by dialing a toll-free number in a long list of countries. This is especially useful if you spend more time travelling and doing business overseas than you are at home.

Regardless of which VoIP phone system you choose for your small business, make sure you are getting the most out of the money you spend for these long distance or international plans. Forget the bells and whistles. The purpose of having a good phone system is, and always should be, to communicate and express yourself.

About the author:
Gobala Krishnan

If you are any kind of small business or home operated business, online presence is essential. Majority of web site visitors are from the English speaking population due to the high levels of internet penetration in that category, online presence for all small enterprises cannot be overemphasized. The research data in the US about online connectivity reveals the following facts which may help to understand the importance of the web presence for businesses especially the small enterprise.

70 % of the US households have web connectivity.

In 2004 worldwide online population was 801 million worldwide.

Of these 36% used English as the language. Of this U.S. alone accounts for close to 200 million.

The next major group was European languages with 38 % and major single language next to English was Chinese accounting for 14%.

Home web users were generally affluent, literate, and belonged to the younger age profile. This means the web presence for any business is necessary if you want to succeed in promoting your products and services to a population who can afford them and also willing to buy them online.

The household that did not own a computer or who were were not connected to the web, generally felt it is not useful or needed and cost too much.

What this means for a small business owner is that they are better off promoting their products to people who were online.

You small business success is undoubtedly linked to your online presence

About the author:
R.G. Srinivasan

Before you jump into small business entrepreneurship, consider first the following myths which we will debunk.

1. Starting a Small Business is Easier Work

This isn’t true. You’ll probably work harder. A small business needs more work to survive. However, the potential to earn is more. The difference is, at work you would balk at overtime. With your small business, you may actually enjoy working overtime because you are caring for your own business.

2. MYTH: I’ll be the boss.
You may be the boss of your company. But you will still have to please someone else: the client. So in truth, they are the boss. Make sure you keep them happy and well served.

3. MYTH: I Can Now Ratchet Up My Asking Price

We often think that we work too much and are paid too little. When starting a small business we may be tempted to think that we can now push for a price more befitting our skills. However, we should remember that we have competition who might be offering their services for a pretty low amount. We always have to be competitive and practical. And exorbitant pricing may not help our small business any much.

4. MYTH: I Don’t Have to Deal with People I Don’t Like Anymore!

Unfortunately, no. You might find that the clients you now have may be pushier than your boss. And as we said in number 1, your clients are your boss. The goal here is for you to have more and more clients. So from here does it follow that the more the clients, the more the bosses, the more the headaches?

5. MYTH: I Own My Time!

Yes, you do own your time. Unfortunately you will find yourself using more and more of this time to tend to your business. So ultimately, no, you won’t gain much in the time department.

6. MYTH: I can’t work any harder. I can’t do all this.

Do you know that they most managers give more jobs to busy employees because they seem to know how to balance and allocate their time? The key to working more is to work smarter, not harder.

This will take a lot of organization, but being able to accomplish much in less time will prove to be its own reward.

7. MYTH: Freedom at Last!

Free from what? And free to do what. Yes, you will have more leeway to do things when you want to. But this does not mean that you will be free to do nothing. Or be free to do something else than tend to your business when you have to.

8. MYTH: I’m in Charge. There’ll be No Mismanagement from Me.

You may think that your boss was foolish not to listen to your suggestions regarding work. But unless you are on the hot seat, you will not appreciate how hard management really is.

9. MYTH: If I’m good, I’ll be a success immediately.
The unfortunate reality of life is that sometimes, talent and hard work are not rewarded. However, if one is patient with his or her small business, the chance that that business will turn out to be a success increases. So always be practical in your expectations of success. Don’t count your chicks when the eggs haven’t hatched yet.

10. MYTH: I Can Motivate Myself

No man is an island, remember? In any business, your first line of security is your friends and family members. They will help you assess yourself and should be ready with a kind word or two to motivate you to start your own business. But aside from them you should be driven yourself. Without this drive you might not find the fortitude needed to weather the trials that beset starting businesses.

About the author:
Daegan Smith

These are just some general tips to keep in mind as you design/operate your small business:

1. Take the time out to explore and understand whether or not you are compatible with running our own business. Some people are just plain happier and better off financially on the other end of the paycheck.

2.Get your personal finances in order. Before you jump into the entrepreneurship world, get your own money matters squared away.

3. Pick your niche. Many small business owners succeed in businesses that are hardly unique or innovative. Take stock of your skills, interests, and employment history to select the business that is best suited for you.

4. Benefit from your business plan. The exercise of creating a business plan is what pays the dividends. Answer the tough questions now before the meter starts running.

5. Do not think you need bankers and investors at the outset of your business. The vast majority of small businesses are bootstrapped.

6. Acquire the proper background. In the early months and years of your business, you will have to acquire many skills. Gain the background you need to oversee all facets of your business well, but determine what tasks you should outsource or hire employees.

7. Remember that nothing happens until a sale is made – How many good products go nowhere because they do not reach the shelves? Sales drive your business. You will need a good marketing plan to sell your product or service.

8. You have to see a customer to know one. N o matter how busy you are, spend at least 25% of your time with customers. You cannot make the proper business decision without understanding their viewpoint.

9. Solve your customers’ problems. The best way to satisfy your customers is not by selling them products but by giving solutions to their problems. There is a big difference.

10.Quality takes minutes to lose but years to regain. Quality is not a destination, it is a never ending journey. After you have strayed from quality’s path, your journey maybe sidetracked forever.

11. Put profitability first, rewards seconds. In small businesses, profitability must come first. Find out how to measure your cash flow and understand key financial ratios.

12. Hire supporters. If you intend to create a growing business, your number one duty is to assemble a great team of employees.

13. Do not do it alone. Find such help from small business peers, a mentor, even trade associations. They can help take some of the trial and error of beginning your business.
14. Vendors are partners too! Treat your vendors like customers and watch your partnership grow.

15. Make use of benefits. Understand how to provide insurance and other benefits for your employees and cut your tax bill at the same time.

16. Ignore regulatory issues at your peril. Federal, state, and local governments require licenses, registrations, and permits. Obey them or face losing your business.

17. Know the tax laws. Invest in understanding tax issues that affect your small business.

18. It’s the people! Whatever happens to a small business happens at the hands of the people who work for it. The evolution of the business is a result of their efforts.

19. Fast, good, cheap. Pick any two. Serious trouble awaits those who attempt to be all three in the market place. Stick with what you do best.

20. Develop a passion for learning. As your business grows, you need to change and grow along with it. One common denominator can be found in all successful business owners and that is a passion for learning.

“I only have a small business, I don’t need a budget.”

“I don’t have enough money to budget.”

For many small business owners, the word “budget” is something for the bigger company - maybe they’ll have one when their business “grows up.”

What is a Budget?

The simple explanation is a budget is a plan for how you will manage all financial resources and all expenses for your business. The basic equation that you want to demonstrate in a budget is as follows:

(estimated )Sales minus (estimated) Expenses = Profit (or loss)

How to create a Budget

If this is your first time to work on a budget for your small business, you might work from the perspective of having to list cost of goods or services plus all of your operating expenses to start the process.

How much does it take to operate your phone line? What is the cost of other utilities? How about the cost of a company vehicle, or what is the cost of transportation if you’re using your personal vehicle to also serve as a company vehicle. Do you need any supplies or inventory to operate your business? How about any employee payroll, payroll taxes or independent product or service providers? Remember to include everything you spend money on to operate your business even if you allocate some of the expenses to “petty cash” expenses, such as parking or bridge tolls while traveling to see clients.

I recommend that you create annual budget, as opposed to a monthly budget, so you can identify any expenses that you may have that come up only once or twice a year such as insurance and include them in your list of expenses. This allows you to amortize or spread the cost of this out over several months so that you can plan ahead for the expense.

As you work on your list of expenses keep in mind that these are the expenses that are necessary to operate your business. These should not be your “wish list” unless you want to budget in some expansion or growth. You may want to create a budget with just the necessities and another version of your budget with expansion expenses listed so that you can see the cost of both separately.

With a dollar figure to work with of your total expenses you are able to set the standard for or evaluate your sales figures. If you are new to your business you may need to use the dollar amount of your expenses to help you determine what your sales need to be in order to cover all costs and show a profit. If you have been in business for a while you can evaluate whether or not you are producing a profit by looking at historical sales figures.

As you conduct business during your budget year you should compare your actual income and spending with what you estimated. This will allow you to manage your spending so that you don’t over spend and cut into or eliminate your profits. You will also be able to see if sales have met expectations in order to cover expenses and still remain profitable.

Who should Budget?

Every small business owner should budget, no matter the size of business. I have heard some small business owners say their business is too small to budget, but that is not true. If you don’t have a written plan for what your financial obligations are and how your revenue will cover those obligations and leave some money unspent, then your business will never grow. In fact, you may out-spend your revenue and put yourself out of business.

Why Budget?

Budgeting for your small business gives you control over your finances. By looking ahead to what you know or can reasonably estimate what your expenses will be, you can then make financial decisions that will keep you from over-spending, or give you the freedom to invest in the growth of your business.

When Budget?

Every small business owner should have a budget to start their business and then review it annually. I recommend that small business owners review their budget several months before the end of their fiscal year. When I say review the budget I’m talking about comparing projected budget with actual. In the comparison you can see if your estimates were realistic. You and your CPA can also plan for last minute tax strategies, or plan to implement strategies in the up coming year’s budget.

The Goal in Budgeting

Remember, the goal of having a budget is to stay in control of your finances in advance. Setting the standard for your spending and revenue and having a tool to compare with actual will give you the control that you need to stay profitable. At the very least it will give you an indication of whether or not your business is actually profitable and not just busy.

Resource

Throw away all your receipts!
Yes, you can throw them all away after you’ve scanned them into NeatReceipts. This handy tool is operated by scanning all of your receipts using a portable scanner into your computer or laptop. The software can produce expense reports or you can import the information from the receipts into your accounting software such as Quicken or QuickBooks. Once the receipt has been scanned into your computer you have a digital copy so you can through the receipt away. No more shoe boxes full of receipts! http://www.thesmallbusinessguru.com/products/item10.cfm

About the author:
Melody Campbell

When starting a small business it can be costly, and finding a
grant if you’re a women isn’t always the easiest thing to do.
Little do most people know, there are millions of dollars just
waiting to be claimed for grants from the government and other
little-known organizations. It can be very difficult to find
the right grant for you, and the place of where to get it, but
with a few clicks you too can easily get access to small
business grants for women.

It is not a secret that women are beginning to own more and more
businesses everyday. Not only this, but these businesses are
becoming just as successful if not more then men’s businesses
are. If you are looking for a grant, don’t be hesitant to look
because of what the business is going to be. There are
literally hundreds to thousands of grants out there for women
wanting to start craft businesses, consulting, brokerage, record
labels and more.

When looking for a grant, there is the option of spending
hundreds of dollars to pay somebody to get you a grant.
However, there are other ways that are completely free, but may
be more time consuming then you would hope. One site that is
worth checking out is The Ladies Club 2000.com. It is required
that you sign up and become a member, free of charge, but then
you will have access to grant information on how you can become
qualified for a grant and where you can find grants to begin
your business or increase your business.

http://www.theladiesclub2000.com/grantsforwomen.htm

There are all kinds of companies out there, and the type of
grant that you will receive varies for place to place. On
womens-finance.com, there are two different kinds of grants
offered. There is the New Business grant that is between $100
and $5,000, and there is the existing business grand that ranges
from $1,000-$5,000. You do have to apply at this site and be
accepted, but it is worth checking this site out below:

http://www.womensbusinessgrants.com/

It may not seem like it, but our government does want you to
succeed, and that is why there is millions of dollars out there
for you. Most places have ridiculous requirements in order to
get a grant such as being over 65, being a minority, or even
having bad credit sometimes help the process.

There are sites out there that are specifically looking for
women only to give grants to. These sites are attempting to
help the women population succeed in entrepreneurialism and
begin the road to succession. The site listed just below here
has a list of about ten different sites that are specifically
looking for women to give grants to.

http://www.womanowned.com/Growing/Funding/Opportunities.aspx

There is no reason to get frustrated after not having any luck
finding loans. The government wants you to succeed in opening
your small business, or help develop it that much more. There
are a few sites listed above that are very much worth checking
out to help you find small business grants for women. Don’t get
discouraged as this can be time consuming, but once you find the
financial help needed, you will be on your way to developing
your business.

If you’re like many small business owners, the mountain of debt you accumulated during startup might have been enough to make you worry about collection agencies every time you answered the phone. But your feelings toward collection agencies are eventually going to change, if they haven’t already.

Small Business Collection Agency Services: More Benefits than Costs

Small business collection agency services will certainly cost more than just writing letters demanding your money back. But the amount of money you’ll collect, not to mention the time you’ll save, will more than pay it back. In fact, when you consider the hourly rate of your employees, or you yourself, collection agencies’ fees really can be quite a bargain.

Let’s say you have an assistant your business pays $10/hour, effectively costing your business $15/hour once you count in employment taxes, benefits, and the overhead of your office. You would be lucky if that assistant spent just five hours total on each debt, and managed to collect half of them.

But you would have sunk $150 into each successful collection. Plus, there’s the opportunity cost: $150 worth of time you haven’t spent in growing your business. So the net loss is $300, and probably more if you’re a profitable business that gets a good return on your people’s time.

But if you refer your delinquent debts to a collection agency for $75 each, and they collect three-quarters of them, you’ve invested only $100 per debt collected. Once you factor in all the money from all the debts the agency collected for you that you couldn’t have collected on your own, the return on investment is huge. That’s not even counting the saved opportunity cost, or all the stress you’ll save yourself and your associates.

In the end, your small business has to focus on doing what brings in the money: your core business. Leave your taxes to your accountant, your office repairs to your building manager, and your collections to your small business collection agency.

About the author:
Joel Walsh writes for Collection Agency Information:http://www.collection-agency-information.com? collection agency [Web publication requirement: create live link for the URL/web address with “collection agency” as visible link text/anchor text; if offering for re-publication (article bank, aggregator, or clearinghouse), no link text required.]

In your small business debt collection laws will eventually become important, as your debt grows and some clients do not pay.

To collect small business debts legally, you must first send a written notice that collections have begun, within five days of first contacting the debtor for collections (for instance, within five days of calling on the telephone). The letter must include dispute instructions.

Small Business Debt Collection Laws Forbidden Practices

* Collect any amount beyond the actual debt, unless you really can do so legally.

* Continue collections on a debt if the debtor has disputed the debt, unless you provide the debtor with written proof.

* Continue contacting the debtor if within 30 days of first contact, the debtor disputes the debt.

* Credit a payment the debtor has made to a non-disputed debt to a debt the debtor has disputed.

* Deposit a post-dated check before the post-date.

Small Business Debt Collections Laws: What You Can’t Say

* Give a false name.

* You are an attorney or government representative, if you are not.

* You have an attorney working for you or that you are going to assign the case to an attorney, if you really do not.

* The debtor has committed a crime, unless you are 100ure they have.

* You work for a credit bureau, if you really do not.

* The debt is more or less money than it actually is.

* You are sending or have sent legal forms when you really did not.

* You are sending or have sent papers that are not legal forms, if they really are legal forms.

* The debtor will be arrested–no one is arrested for nonpayment of debts anymore.

* You will seize, garnish, attach, or sell the debtor’s property or wages, if you do not really intend to or cannot legally do so (and unless the debt is secured with collateral, you probably cannot).

* You will sue or take other legal action, if you do not really intend to, or are not legally able to do so.

Small Business Debt Collection Laws Forbidden Third-Party Disclosures

Never:

* Give any credit-related information that is not 100
ccurate.

* Tell anyone other than the debtor that you are collecting a debt.

* Telephone any number other than the debtor’s more than once.

Small Business Debt Collection Phone Calls

Never:

* Call after 9 pm or before 8 am.

* Forget to give your name and your company’s name.

* Call repeatedly or in a way intended to annoy.

* Make a collect call.

* Make any threats.

* Use profane or obscene language.

* Leave a message that reveals this is a debt collection.

Small Business Debt Collection Mailing

Never send:

* Postcards.

* Envelopes or mailings with any reference to debt collection on the exterior.

* Anything that looks like an official, legal, or government document, if it is not.

Please note this page is not intended to give legal advice and may not be complete or up to date with the most current collection laws changes.

About the author:
Joel Walsh

A small business merchant account may be just what your company needs to edge out the competition. If your customer base is growing or they are asking increasingly for credit payment options as well as for information about your products and services, a merchant account can answer their questions and help to grow your business while leaving your competitors in the dust.

It is easy to apply for a small business merchant account. Just find a merchant account provider, which you can do by searching the Internet using relevant key terms. Browse the many sites offering this special type of commercial status before choosing one. Terms and fees vary a great deal, so you want to become knowledgeable about your choices before signing the contract. You may become tempted to take on more than a business the size of yours really needs at this point. Don’t be misled by all the bells and whistles that are available. Stick with the basics when you start out, and add other options only when they are truly needed and when you can afford them.

Companies offering a small business merchant account are usually banks and other financial institutions. Typically they look for a company’s good credit history, the ability to make payments on the merchant account, and avoidance of questionable commercial activities like spam or telemarketing. They are willing to extend credit to small business owners who demonstrate good business ethics, who have made good use of resources to date, and who have developed a sensible growth plan for long-term goals. Often, the application can be filled out online and submitted electronically, and you may receive an answer within a matter of hours. Then you can immediately purchase or lease credit processing equipment like a credit card processor, electronic or wireless, as well as check and debit processors, pagers, and other types of technical equipment that will upgrade your business into a higher professional realm by dint of efficiency and speed capabilities.

Your small business merchant account will help you set up an Internet Website to promote your business internationally. Customers from around the world can browse the site any time of the day or night and shop without the hassle of finding the store closed or associates unavailable. With your convenience credit processing option, they can order a product or service and pay by credit card, facilitated by the underwriting bank or financial institution that authorizes MasterCard or Visa coordination and then pays you via an account transfer. All you really have to do after setting up the site and keeping it upgraded via service personnel is to make occasional equipment checks and then withdraw income from your merchant account.

A merchant account gives a small business owner the freedom to conduct business like a professional, using the same equipment and services to attract and serve busy customers. Others in your field who don’t have a merchant account may lose clients to your company when you upgrade to the use of time-saving technology. Check out the advantages along with the responsibilities of opening a small business merchant account.

About the author:
Shane Penrod

Are you in need of financial resources in order to start or even maintain your small business? Most of us are. The fist step is to take a look at the vast number of commercial loan sources that offer help in this area such as Chase, Citibank, etc. Also, with the Small Business Administration (SBA), you should be able to arrange a connection with one of these banks. This is one of many organizations that specialize in loans to small businesses.

Contrary to the belief that bankers actually look for reasons to turn down prospective clients in need of a loan, they are in the business to lend money. This means that every time a banker is sitting in front of a potential client, they are hoping to make the deal work just as much, if not more than the client wants it to work.

A bank’s primary role in the small business lending area is funding growth. An example of this would be to finance the expansion of small business with a proven track record. Most banks can offer a wide variety of loan packages designed to finance expansion of an already existing small business.

Below are a few examples bank loan packages :

1. Asset Based Financing. Asset Based Financing is a general term describing a transaction whereby a lender accepts collateral and assets of a company in exchange for a loan. Most asset based loans are collateral against other accounts receivable, inventory, or equipment. Accounts receivable is the most favored of the three because it can be converted into cash quickly. Banks will only advance funds on a percentage of receivable or inventory, typically being around 75% of the receivable and 50% inventory.

2. Line of Credit. A line of credit involves the bank’s setting aside designated funds for the business to draw against for the cash it needs. As the line of credit is used, the credit line is reduced and when payments are made the line is replenished. One major advantage of a line of credit is that no interest is accrued unless the funds are actually used.

3. Floor Planning. Floor Planning is another form of asset based lending in which the borrower’s inventory is used as collateral for the loan. Car dealerships are a prime example of a business that often uses floor planning as their primary financial tool.

Does the term collection agency put you on edge? If youre like many small business owners, the mountain of debt you accumulated during startup might have been enough to make you worry about collection agencies every time you answered the phone. But your feelings toward collection agencies are eventually going to change, if they havent already.

While no one wants to hire a collection agency, its a sad reality of doing business that not every customer feels the need to pay, or has the ability to pay all at once. If you want to stay in business, youll need to collect that money. When your most polite and not-so-polite reminders to pay have failed, youll need to start getting serious, which means going to an agency.

Small Business Collection Agency Services: More Benefits than Costs

Small business collection agency services will certainly cost more than just writing letters demanding your money back. But the amount of money youll collect, not to mention the time youll save, will more than pay it back. In fact, when you consider the hourly rate of your employees, or you yourself, collection agencies fees really can be quite a bargain.

Lets say you have an assistant your business pays $10/hour, effectively costing your business $15/hour once you count in employment taxes, benefits, and the overhead of your office. You would be lucky if that assistant spent just five hours total on each debt, and managed to collect half of them. But you would have sunk $150 into each successful collection. Plus, theres the opportunity cost: $150 worth of time you havent spent in growing your business. So the net loss is $300, and probably more if youre a profitable business that gets a good return on your peoples time.

But if you refer your delinquent debts to a collection agency for $75 each, and they collect three-quarters of them, youve invested only $100 per debt collected. Once you factor in all the money from all the debts the agency collected for you that you couldnt have collected on your own, the return on investment is huge. Thats not even counting the saved opportunity cost, or all the stress youll save yourself and your associates.

In the end, your small business has to focus on doing what brings in the money: your core business. Leave your taxes to your accountant, your office repairs to your building manager, and your collections to your small business collection agency.

Steve Austin

It is not surprising that some people may perceive Six Sigma as being only for large corporations. Major corporations such as Allied Signal, Black & Decker, Dow Chemical, Dupont, Federal Express, General Electric, Johnson and Johnson, Kodak, Motorola, Sony, and Toshiba have all rolled out Six Sigma efforts and achieved outstanding results. Yet, it is incorrect to think that Six Sigma process improvement results can only be achieved by huge organizations. Small businesses can also succeed in implementing Six Sigma and reap the process improvement benefits that Six Sigma provides.

Certainly, there are factors that can be disadvantageous for implementing Six Sigma in a small business rather than a large business, such as lack of resources and expertise in change initiatives. However, there are also characteristics inherent in small businesses that can speed up the effective implementation of Six Sigma more than in large businesses, such as flexible process flows, a shorter decision-making chain, and higher visibility of senior management.

Six Sigma can work in any size business because the nature of Six Sigma is dependent upon characteristics inherent to any business, not on the size of a business. Six Sigma MAIC (measure, analyze, improve, and control) disciplines work no matter the size of the organization or even the size of the Six Sigma project.

Small businesses do have constraints that limit their ability to initiate a large scale Six Sigma implementation. However, there are ways to overcome these limitations. Small businesses don’t have large reserves of excess cash to earmark for the massive training programs employed by the large corporations in implementing their Six Sigma programs. Small businesses generally can’t afford to have full-time Master Black Belts on staff and may not have the personnel with the skills and expertise to step into the role of Black Belts without extensive training. A certified Six Sigma consultant can act as your Black Belt for the initial projects until you have generated sufficient savings to be able to provide some of those savings for training your own people. Training happens at a slower scale for smaller companies but it still happens. Financially, savings realized from the first set of projects usually justifies the entire cost of the Six Sigma training.

Once some members of the organization have been trained as Green Belts, Six Sigma projects proceed with Green Belts executing Six Sigma processes. Incrementally, Green Belts are developed into Black Belts and new Green Belts are trained. Using a more gradual training approach addresses many of the constraints of smaller companies and allows them to implement Six Sigma at a pace a small business can more easily manage.

There is a benefit to implementing Six Sigma in a smaller business. Because of the size of a small business, the financial results and cultural transformation that stem from Six Sigma will propagate more quickly through a smaller organization. Focusing the Six Sigma tools at virtually any properly scoped project will drive savings to your bottom line and achieve breakthrough change in your organization.

About the author:
Peter Peterka