Finance – Page 48

What can Small Business Owners learn from Greek Crisis

June 6, 2012

Unless you have been hiding in a cave for the last couple of years you know Greece is on the verge of economic collapse on the scale not seen before. The unemployment rate is a staggering 22% and they are expected to default on their loans unless they receive yet another round of financial help from their neighbors and EU partners.
While it may be tempting to think of Greek situation as unique, it is not far-fetched to think of an analogous scenario for small businesses. After all, as we show below the reasons behind Greek crisis are prevalent in many of the businesses – both large and small. That’s why Greek crisis holds important lessons for business owners in how not to get into the financial disaster. Below is our attempt to explore reasons behind Greece’s failure and how they apply to small business owners.
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Filed Under: Finance, Management, Strategy Tagged With: Cash-Flow, Cost-Management, Metrics, Partnership

50 Interesting Online courses for Small Business Owners

February 25, 2012

Continuous learning and improvement is essential for small business owners. However, for many of us going to college or getting an MBA degree is not an option. After all, there are only 24 hours in a day! Online courses can help overcome this barrier by enabling us to learn at our own pace and convenience.
I came across this list of online courses offered by well-known universities and other private institutions that I wanted to pass along. Many of these courses are targeted to help you learn or improve specific skill set, which would be helpful for anyone who doesn’t want to go through the entire coursework of university degree.
Here is the link to the course listing.
Let us know which courses you like the most for the benefit of other readers. Happy Learning!

Filed Under: Finance, Management, Marketing, Operations, Strategy, Technology Tagged With: How-to, Training

How to Make Daily Deals Work for your Business

February 14, 2012

Daily deals facilitated by companies like Groupon and Living Social are double-edged swords for businesses. On one hand, they help you get new customers and improve sales. On the other hand, you end up with high operating expenses and dissatisfied customers, if not done right. Reading the horror stories that some businesses experienced you might think that it is never a good idea to work with daily deal companies. While this reaction is understandable, it may be extreme and may result in you losing out on the benefits offered by daily deals. We think with the right approach and proper planning you can make daily deals work for your business. Below we provide tips on how to do it.
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Filed Under: Customers, Finance, Marketing, Sales Tagged With: Advertising, Best-Practices, Coupon, Negotiation

What Type of Business is “Right” for You?

January 31, 2012

Is there such a thing as “right” business for you? It is a fact that not everyone is suitable to become a small business owner. There are signs that tell you whether you will succeed in owning a small business. But once you know that you have what it takes to be a small business owner, can you take it one step further and figure out which type of business will be a good fit? I think the answer is YES.
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Filed Under: Buyers, Finance, Management, Operations Tagged With: Business-Start, Time-Management

How do You know if your Business Idea will Succeed

January 24, 2012

Majority of small businesses fail in the first three years. As remarkable as this statistic is, it doesn’t stop number of aspiring entrepreneurs from pursuing their dream of owning a business. They think about their idea as the best thing since sliced bread was invented and are convinced that there is a huge untapped market out there that nobody as cracked. They have run their idea by close confidants and got their endorsement. Uncle Bob likes their product and Aunt Ann can’t wait to get her hand on it. There is only one problem. It is still an idea in your head!!!

So how do you go past this “pie in the sky” idea stage and make it a reality? Even more important, how do you know that this idea will succeed and will not leave you with agony and angst when it’s all over?
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Filed Under: Buyers, Finance, Management Tagged With: Business-Start, Cash-Flow, Competition, Pricing

7 Common Mistakes that Impact Cash Flow and How to Avoid Them

January 3, 2012

Cash flow is a lifeblood for small business. Fail to plan properly for the month-end cash flow needs and you will start losing your sleep when the time arrives to write paychecks for employees or to pay vendor bills. That’s why it is very important to keep a keen eye on money coming in and going out, and plan for those times when you will need sizeable cash outflow. Not only that, but you have to take into account unexpected emergencies that will force you to spend money here and now. In earlier post, we showed how managing your inventory, account payables and receivables can help you better manage your cash flow.
In addition to those tips, you should also look at the obvious as well as not-so-easy-to-find ways in which small business owners squander cash and end up in dire situations. Here are examples of the mistakes many small business owners make and how you can avoid them.
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Filed Under: Employees, Finance, Management, Marketing, Purchasing Tagged With: Advertising, Cash-Flow, Cost-Management, Negotiation, Real-Estate, Time-Management

Smart Cash Flow Strategies for Small Business Owners

December 11, 2011

Cash flow management is one of the most important tasks small business owners need to pay attention to. If you are not paying attention to how your business generates and spends cash you may end up in real trouble, real fast. Cash flow management touches many parts of business, including inventory management, accounts payable, accounts receivable and so on. Below we provide you with insights that will help manage your cash flow better.
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Filed Under: Finance, Management Tagged With: Cash-Flow, Cost-Management

Tips for Setting Up Merchant Account to Accept Credit Cards

November 27, 2011

This blog post is written by Shannon Martin.
Most small businesses are overpaying for credit card processing. In our conversations with number of small business owners we have not come across a single owner who does not hate credit card processing companies for the exorbitant amount of money they charge. That is why it is important to do your homework before you sign up with the merchant processing company. In this post we provide useful tips you should keep in mind when talking to credit card service providers.
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Filed Under: Finance Tagged With: Best-Practices, Cost-Management, Credit-Card

Framework for Deciding What NOT to do

September 28, 2011

In the previous post we highlighted that the most difficult decisions you will ever make are the ones where you decide NOT to move forward. By focusing your resources and energy on narrowly you can achieve number of benefits and get higher return on your investment of time, money or effort. We mentioned how Apple has succeeded to become the most valuable company in the U.S. by applying this principle, while GM had floundered by spreading resources over multiple brands with lot of overlaps.
You should use this approach in decision making every step of the way. If you take a step back and think about the decision in terms of cost vs. benefit of the current choice and evaluate it against alternatives you can improve the odds of making the right choice. You can use this principle in number of different areas as shown below.
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Filed Under: Customers, Employees, Finance, Management, Marketing, Purchasing, Sales Tagged With: Advertising, Best-Practices, Hiring, Time-Management