Archive for February, 2010
Top Ten Tips to Improve Business
How come some of the biggest businesses empires like Enron, Lehman Brothers, and many more have collapsed suddenly? Were they not being managed by professionals? Were they not able to hire all those success teaching mentors who have been minting money selling their lectures and books on tips to manage businesses successfully? These questions raise the doubt that there might be a very same rat creeping down your establishments, too. Similarly, this also supports the truth that you always need to learn new things to keep your business going and growing, too.
For example, what do you now about cash flow in your business? Is it negative or positive? This is something you would not have considered so far because even a negative cash flow doesn’t show an immediate sign of loss in a big business, but it does nibbles at net worth. A business, with a negative cash flow has to fund each of its sales to some extent. For example if its negative cash flow is 10% of its gross revenue, it has to fund $0.10 on every sell of $1.00. Initially, in flow of business, one may keep it paying and not realize the impact by delaying creditors’ payment, increasing credit limits by bank, or some other means but eventually business runs out of cash and bursts like a bomb.
Here are some tips to improve your business:
1. Cross-sell to increase your prices – cross selling is a powerful way of increasing your overall transaction value and thereby increase profit. McDonalds has nourished it in its blood.
Performance Measurement, Difficulties in Measuring Small Business Performance
Trying to measure performance, in general, is a difficult task for scholars; the difficulties intensify when the subject is the measurement of small business performance. In this article, which is the third in the series, an overview of the major obstacles for measuring small business performance is presented.
Time is a substantial factor that needs to be taken into consideration when trying to measure performance in small business, because measuring the profitability of small businesses in their first years of operation can be misleading. Mcdougall, Robinson and denisi (1992) state, that small businesses are usually not expected to generate any profit in their early years of operation. Biggadike (1979) define a milestone of eight years in operation, in average, before new venture is expecting to generate profits.
Growth rate is not equal in all businesses; moreover it varies substantially between businesses and across industries. Cooper (1979) has related to the potential influence of rapid growth, and noted that operational losses or poor profits in small businesses with growth orientation can’t be used as an indicator for management failure, if the cause for the result is heavy investments in new markets or products. If at different industries we’re expecting different growth rate, then as Miller and Tolouse (1986) states, the industry in which the business is operating in is affecting the level of business performance in general as well as the small business performance.
General Personal Finance Advice
Personal finance is an individual’s financial status. It’s about how much money you have, and how much you need. It is about managing your money – today and for tomorrow.
Money is the currency on which all world economies function. Income – expenditure -bills- debts – savings: These are a fact of life. A constant for most is the endeavor to tip the scales in favor of savings.
Successful financial management includes planning and keeping records of income and expenditure, budgeting, balancing your check book, insurance and investments – whether in real estate, the share market, funds or any of the other available mechanisms. You cannot overlook the necessity of planning your savings, your tax savings and your retirement.
A very interesting way to look at Asset and Liability is in the following terms:
An Asset is anything which brings in money or does not change the status of your money in the bank. A liability is anything which causes money to flow out – whether under the pretext of taxes, interest or fees.
Budgeting – This ensures that you are financially healthy and flourishing. It is a good idea to create and use a budget worksheet which allows you to make a detailed expenditure plan and helps you discover any shortage or unplanned expenditures.
Some useful tips in planning your finances:
The Importance of Learning about Personal Finance
There are a number of different reasons as to why a person should learn about personal finance, but it is perhaps understandable that most people can not see these reasons for themselves. Personal finance is a difficult topic to learn about and for that reason a person just naturally tends to shy away from it, making excuses in an attempt to avoid having to learn about it. Well, personal finance is extremely important and here are some reasons why.
Money Flow
If you understand personal finance, then you will understand your money flow a lot better. There are a number of people that muddle through life paying their bills and their mortgage payment with the money that they have and then spending the rest of it or maybe letting it sit in their bank account. These are people that have no idea how personal finance works, so even if they end up making the right decisions they are doing it through luck.
While there is nothing inherently wrong with this particular approach, don’t you think that you would feel much better if you knew exactly what was going on with your money flow? The old saying is that knowledge is power and if you know about your money flow, you arguably have the most important individual power that exists in the world today.
Uncertainty and Fear
Credit Scores and Looking for A Business Loan
As has been one of the topics discussed throughout these articles, credit scores are extremely important when applying for business loans. With lending standards tightening among all banks and financial institutions, it is imperative that you have a credit score that implies that you are a worthy credit risk. A credit score is calculated based on a number of factors including your past payment history, your current debts, how long you have had credit, and whether or not you have any delinquent accounts. Today, most lenders want to see a credit score above 680 if they are going to grant you a business loan.
When looking for business loan, you should pull all three of your credit reports from the three major credit bureaus (Equifax, Trans Union, and Experian). Each bureau maintains its own records so it is important to ensure that the information on each of your reports is correct. Most banks now look at all three different reports to make sure that there are no discrepancies.
If your current credit is not in a good state then you may want to talk to your accountant or a properly licensed credit counselor before applying for a business loan. They will be able to assist you in making appropriate decisions regarding how you can improve your credit score so that when you do apply for a business loan – you will have no issues pertaining to your credit.