Positioning in Small Business Marketing

Small Business Owner Sales Tips Posted By : Jim Degerstrom

You know the value of what you offer, so how do you convince a prospective customer? Understanding the psychology of what happens during the sales process requires empathy.

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Deciding to Start a Business Posted By : Michael Saunders

If you have a hobby that can be made profitable, a wonderful idea for a service your community needs, or a new idea for a product you want to sell, all of these provide good starting points for business Ideas.

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Does my small business need a budget?

“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 is The Small Business Guru. You can view more Small Business Owner Resources at The Small Business Guru website. Educate yourself for Success in the Core Competencies to becoming a Master Small Business Owner. New monthly membership trial for only $1 for the first 30 days! http://www.thesmallbusinessguru.com

How to Stay Ahead of the Rest Posted By : James Delrojo

Today’s world is highly competitive. Regardless of whether you are in business or in the workforce you have to ward off competition each and every day. But there is something that you can do to keep ahead of the field so that your competition does not threaten you.

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Todays World And The Best Small Business Opportunities Posted By : Michelle Bery -

Starting a small business can be a journey into an unknown world; your dreams of a lifetime reliant upon the success or failure of the opportunity your make for yourself. The best small business opportunities in todays world can be found in a variety of different places; what we make of them is up to us. The advent and continued growth of the Internet has changed the way business is conducted in todays society. Subsequently, novice entrepreneurs often look to cyberspace…

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Small Business Services Posted By : Yuri Jagrine

Not selling small business services – poor oversight. Small business is BIG business!

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Small Steps For Small Businesses To Improve Their IT Infrastructure Posted By : Stacey Moore

According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as many as 40 percent of small businesses do not reopen after major disasters. Since small businesses account for the lion’s share of the gross domestic product, it is vital to protect these small businesses from shutting down to maintain a stable global economy.

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Why Online Presence Is Essential For Small Business Success

by: Srinivasan R.G.

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 is a managerial professional, Writer and Author. He writes a regular blog on management thoughts with interesting articles, resources, personal experiences and links useful for practicing managers athttp://management-thoughts.blogspot.com

What Are You Doing to Create a Thriving Business? Posted By : Yvonne Weld

Could your business survive any obstacle thrown at it, including the ultimate obstacle of your death. What considerations should you be making for your business in the event of owner death or owner absenteeism to ensure business growth and business success. Creating a business manual or office procedures manual is a crucial first step to allowing your business to prosper and reach its full potential. Does your business have a plan in place? Have you left instructions for running your business should something happen to you?

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Even For The Smallest Of Businesses, Incorporating Has Big Advantages Posted By : Stacey Moore

Congratulations! You’ve started a small business. If you’re among the 26 million small-business owners in the U.S., you know that there’s little time to celebrate your accomplishment. As your business grows, you’ll face new challenges that come with success.

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