The holidays are a great time of the year to promote your product, find new business partners and fine tune your strategies. With peak shopping months online and offline along with the promise of the new year, companies are finding ways to reach new customers and gain partners. One way to do this is by launching a telemarketing campaign. Here are some guidelines to help get you started the right way:

· With a new year beginning most businesses are going to be reviewing the previous year and critiquing their performance and figuring out what they want to change. Take advantage of this time of year to do the same thing and decide what new companies you would like to potentially work with and schedule a call. By scheduling an appointment with them in December, you’ll be on their books on the first of the year.

· If you operate a non-profit, the holidays are the perfect time to benefit from the giving spirit. People are in the mood for charity and some businesses have to give funds to charities. The same is true for colleges and universities. College and Universities can staff their call centers with current or former students so the recipient feels a connection when answering the phone.

· If you have an ecommerce store or a boutique shop, don’t just advertise on your site and via signs. Promote! Call your past customers to tell them about your deals. Send an email to them with concise and to-the-point specials. Let customers know of the great deals you are offering in more ways than one, but make sure to keep your message simple. People tend to be busier during the holidays, so don’t take more time than needed. Be sure your telemarketing staff is happy and in the holiday spirit. Most telemarketing companies offer lead generation services too. To connect with them, Resource Nation offers a service that is free and easy to use.

· Often companies are not as aggressive during the holiday season since they assume most other businesses will just tell them to call back after the new year has begun. While this may generally be true, there is still plenty to gain by getting your name out there. If a company tells you to call back after the 1st of the year, have the staff at the telemarketing company set up appointments for an exact time and day. This way you already have calls set up in advance while most of your competition is starting from scratch after the holidays.

· Tell your telemarketing provider to think of fun and creative ways to get your message out for the holidays. Consumers are going to be stressed and tired, so be sure to take this into account with each call that is made. You need to make people feel like you are taking some of the burden off of their shoulders instead of adding to it, so be sure to let them know early in the call how you can help them find great deals with little work.

Resource Nation provides free tools, tips, and purchasing advice for business owners and entrepreneurs in over 100 business categories ranging from phone systems to credit card processing. Whether it's connecting businesses with local and national pre-screened vendors, or offering easy service comparisons on a VoIP service, Resource Nation empowers business decision makers by providing the information they need to make smart choices.

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Article Contributed by Joe McVoy

As with any other venture, you would also need to improve upon your Restaurant Delivery Service business in order to ensure a continuing success. Simply resting on your laurels would get you nowhere, and competitors might come and lessen the profits that you gain. By improving your delivery business, you would be able to ensure that your service would not fall by the wayside as the months go by.

1. Increase your service hours.

One way to improve your restaurant delivery service business would be to try and increase your service hours. If you had been previously content with serving lunch or afternoon meals, then perhaps you can now also try and deliver breakfast items to your clients. By doing this, not only would you be able to give your business a chance to earn more profits through the previously untapped morning sales, but also raise awareness in your clients that you are now catering to more of their needs.

2. Expand your menu.

Another improvement that you can make is by expanding the menu that you have. Perhaps you can try contacting other restaurants in order to add more products to your menu. Doing this helps your business by adding variety to the food that you offer. This would help avoid your clients getting tired of the "same old food" that they get from your delivery service.

3. Check your service.

Also, improvements to your restaurant delivery service business do not have to mean adding services. It could also mean that you would just raise the quality of the service that you already provide. Maybe you can find ways to improve delivery time, or find methods to ensure that the food that you deliver would come as "fresh off the kitchen" as possible.

4. Deliver your own food products

Another way to expand and improve your business is to maybe include your very own food products on the menu. This can be a very good way, if you have your own restaurant, to promote your products and get two stream of profits at the same time.

5. Create a system that can work even when you are not there.

There is a saying that if you can leave your work on its own, it is a business; and if you can not leave it, you have a job. In improving your restaurant delivery service business, you need to set up a system that can be repeated over and over again, even when you are not there. Good thing about this business is that you do not have to manage it closely. All you need to do is a comprehensive business plan or strategy to make sure that your food delivery service business will operate even when you are on a holiday or vacation.

These are merely suggestions. Remember that improving on your restaurant delivery service business can come in many forms. You would just have to find the best one that matches the ideals of your service business.

For more information on how to ensure the success of your restaurant delivery service business, get your free report at http://www.dine-in-delivery.com/dine-in-delivery-free-report/.

Dine-in Delivery provides you with a proven system and solid years of experience to help you set up your own restaurant delivery service business.

About the Author:
Joe McVoy is the VP for Marketing of Dine-In Delivery Inc. For more information about starting your own food delivery service business, visit www.Dine-In-Delivery.com.

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Your employees are your business’ most expensive asset. According to one estimate, up to a third of a person’s salary is devoted strictly to hiring costs. The cost of hiring the wrong employee is even more- reportedly up to twice an employee’s annual salary. Making smart hiring decisions can be tough- you want an employee that has the requisite skills, qualifications, and certifications, but you also want someone that’s the “right fit” for your business. While it’s relatively easy to verify whether or not an employee graduated from a particular institution or has a driver’s license in a certain state using a background check, the “good fit” question can be a little bit more complicated.

Social Media Searches in Hiring
The Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act defines a “consumer report” as “…any written, oral, or other communication of any information by a consumer reporting agency bearing on a consumer’s credit worthiness, credit standing, credit capacity, character, general reputation, personal characteristics, or mode of living….” You’re not the only one thinking that that description is a little vague. A social media search, especially when conducted by a third party as part of a background check, can constitute a “consumer report” for legal purposes. A social media search also typically reveals all kinds of information that is “off limits” for consideration during the hiring process- for example, a person’s race, age, marital status, etc. You can’t consider these characteristics or a host of additional factors- for example, whether the person is pregnant, disabled, or belongs to a certain religious group. Even if you come across this information when you’re not specifically looking for it (as with a social media search), it’s impossible to unring the bell. What’s worse, information may not even be accurate- you may end up discounting a great prospect because of information they weren’t even aware was posted.

Disclosure and Consent
The best policy (if you want to avoid liability) is one of full disclosure- tell the prospective employee that you will perform an online search. The FRCA requires notice to prospective employees whenever you prepare a consumer report (as defined above)-whether you prepare it yourself or use an employment background check service. Outsourcing employment screenings can be a great idea for businesses that aren’t sure about the regulations, procedures, and policies that they need to comply with to perform a legal background search. Though legal opinions vary with respect to social media searches in hiring, it’s better to err on the side of caution- and FRCA compliance.

About the Author
Merrin Muxlow is a writer, yoga instructor, and law student based in San Diego, California. She writes extensively for Resource Nation, a company that provides resources for business owners, and is a frequent contributor to several sites and programs that offer tools for entrepreneurs, including Dell and BizEquity.

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We all know that using less paper is good for the planet and can lead to big savings on business costs. You've probably heard the little tricks to reduce paper waste: you shouldn't print all of your emails, you should purchase a refurbished copier and "green" supplies, and you should always research your equipment purchases (for items like copiers) to find the most energy-efficient options. Even offices that use all of these practices to cut back on paper waste can cancel out their efforts by continuing to store documents the “old fashioned” way- in paper files.

Paper document storage is typically more time consuming, waste producing, and error-prone than an electronic document storage system. Why not switch to a more effective, less expensive method of document management? Electronic storage equipment is becoming more advanced and easier to use, and recent data indicates that most companies recover the costs of a data storage system itself in about a year. Here is a quick guide to electronic document storage options for small businesses:

Document Management Software: This is the backbone of any electronic storage system. Document management software is what allows you to scan, convert, save, and retrieve files electronically. The most effective systems employ OCR, or Optical Character Recognition, which allows scanned images to be converted into text, and search functions that allow you search for miscategorized items. Document management software ranges from the basic (free, downloadable programs like SimpleOCR) to the advanced (hosted solutions costing thousands of dollars a month).

Storage Options: You can store data on your own server, or use a hosted solution. Hosted storage relies on an internet connection, and doesn’t require any large cost outlays for equipment. If you choose the self-storage option, you’ll need to purchase hardware and software outright before you implement the program.

Scanning Services: Documents will need to be scanned before you can access them electronically. Most software programs with OCR require a high-quality scanner- some digital copiers can perform scanning functions, and most basic office color copiers are usually compatible with document storage software programs. If you have a large volume of documents to scan, it’s a good idea to invest in a high-speed scanner or to hire a document scanning service. If you’re hiring a scanning company, you’ve got options- you can have the documents scanned on-site (especially convenient for those companies with large storage needs or very sensitive documents) or can ship them to a scanning service provider. You’ll need to decide how far you want to “back scan” and if you want to keep any paper files.

Merrin Muxlow is a writer, yoga instructor, and law student based in San Diego, California. She writes extensively for Resource Nation, a company that provides resources for business owners, and is a frequent contributor to several sites and programs that offer tools for entrepreneurs, including Dell and BizEquity.

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What do computer giant Dell, gourmet food basket maker Tastefully Simple, and organic brewer Honest Tea have in common? Though all three are now multi-million dollar companies, all were originally started within the founder’s home. You’ve probably heard how Michael Dell worked out of his garage to build his empire, but equally inspiring are the stories of Jill Blashack Strahan- who assembled gift baskets on the pool table of her backyard shed- and Seth Goldman- who brewed tea at his kitchen sink and presented homemade samples to clients in thermoses.

The home-based startup story has a certain magic to it that often glosses over the particulars: where to set up office equipment (computer, printer, copier,etc.), whether or not you should dedicate a business phone line or switch your VoIP service to include “follow” features so you’re always available, and how many hours you should put in when your office is in your kitchen. What does a stay-at-home entrepreneur really need? Here are a few necessities:

1. A Separate, Dedicated Workspace. Whether it’s your garage, a toolshed in the backyard, or just an area off the den, you will need a space that’s just for work.

2. A Separate Phone Line. Small business VoIP service plans are cheap and easy to sign up for. You can also add an extension or line to your existing residential VoIP service arrangement.

3. A Fast Internet Connection. For businesses based online, this is non-negotiable. Your internet connection should be fast enough to support online activity and VoIP calls, if you use an internet-based phone system as your method of business communication.

4. A Door…or Earplugs. If you can’t physically separate your workspace from the rest of the house, you can mentally separate it by using earplugs to tune out audio distractions, or a folding screen to tune out visual ones.

5. A “Do Not Disturb” sign. If you’re working while others are at home, make sure they know when you’re “unavailable.”

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If you’re thinking of switching to VoIP service from a traditional landline based Key, PBX, or hybrid phone system, you’re not alone- businesses of all sizes are beginning to realized the cost-saving benefits of computer/telephony integration. Switching to a VOIP phone is relatively simple- changes can be made quickly and easily, and there is usually very little equipment to purchase.

Whether you’re switching to a business VoIP service or implementing a phone system for the first time, here are a few things you need to consider:

Internet Connectivity

VoIP phone systems use the internet to make and receive calls- you’ll need to make sure your connection and your power supply can support system requirements. Generally, a steady, uninterrupted power supply and a high-speed internet connection are all that’s needed. Your connection should be able to support the added traffic that the system will create. Vendors will ask how many employees will be using the system, how many calls are placed daily, and take into consideration features like auto attendant and call transferring when setting up your internet connection to support your system. You may need to purchase additional routers or install a backup power supply.

VoIP Adapters

If you’re witching to VoIP from a traditional phone system, you can save by purchasing adapters for your current phones. A traditional phone fitted with a VoIP adapter works identically to a VoIP phone. Most adapters are less than $50 each, and are often available in bulk discounts for larger offices. In lieu of adaptors, you can also purchase VoIP phones, headsets, or microphones that can be connected directly to a computer and used in place of a traditional headset. Most business and residential VoIP service providers sell both VoIP-compatible phones and adapters.

VoIP Phones

Voice over Internet Protocol phones are slightly more expensive that VoIP adapters, but are a good investment if you plan to use the system for several years. VoIP phones are easy to use and install- they don’t take any special training to set up. Once installed, they work identically to traditional phones. Most VoIP phones cost at least $100 each, with many vendors offering steep discounts for phones purchased in bulk.

Switching to a VoIP system takes surprisingly little time. Once you’ve decided to make the switch, you can shop around for providers and compare prices for services and equipment. Most providers can also make suggestions about system configuration (i.e., if you need a faster internet connection) during this stage. Once you’ve settled on a service provider and purchased equipment, you can have the new system up and running in less than a week.

About the Author
Merrin Muxlow is a writer, yoga instructor, and law student based in San Diego, California. She writes extensively for Resource Nation, a company that provides resources for business owners, and is a frequent contributor to several sites and programs that offer tools for entrepreneurs, including Dell and BizEquity.

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Some of the biggest economic growth rates lie in Asia. China, which has recently become the world’s 3rd largest economy, has had annual economic growth averaging 9% for many years. Of the G-20 nations, India has the second highest GDP growth rate (following China).

Aidan Healy, managing director of Singapore-based Healy Consultants, agrees that incorporating a company in Asian markets including China, India, Singapore and Hong Kong provide immense opportunity for entrepreneurs, but while regulations and bureaucracy are easing, much still needs to be addressed.

"The business cultures and legal frameworks are hugely different in emerging markets. In some cases company incorporation is still a cumbersome procedure which requires expert knowledge," he explains.

These factors clearly work to the advantage of Singapore incorporation and Hong Kong incorporation. Hong Kong is a natural gateway into China, while Singapore is busy promoting itself as the regional hub of choice.

Both economies consistently rank as the world's freest. In its 2009 Index of Economic Freedom, US-based The Heritage Foundation places Hong Kong and Singapore as first and second in terms of economic freedom. Hong Kong has a record of openness to global trade and investment. While Singapore has a relatively small economy, it’s openness to international business and investment means undertaking Singapore incorporation gives access to one of the world’s most competitive economies.

The report praises the two city-states' policies on inward foreign investment. "Singapore is a world leader in most facets of economic freedom. Regulations are straightforward, virtually all commercial operations are performed with transparency and speed, and corruption is almost nonexistent,” it explains.

According to Singapore's Economic Development Board, the country ranks highly in miscellaneous global surveys. The World Economic Forums’ Global Competitiveness Report 2008-2009 ranked Singapore as the fifth-most competitive economy in the world and the most competitive in Asia.

In another global report, the World Bank's Doing Business 2008 Survey, Singapore is listed as the world's easiest place to do business. Factors considered in the survey include company incorporation procedures, time, cost and the minimum capital required for Singapore company formation.

Illustrating the benefits of Hong Kong company incorporation, the Heritage report says, "The small island is one of the world's leading financial centres, and regulation of banking and financial services is transparent and efficient."

Both Hong Kong and Singapore have extremely competitive tax systems. Whether considering personal or corporate implications, the tax burden is low in both markets. "Everyone wants to be in Asia at the moment," Healy says.

‘Tax haven’ stigma

Another key factor in the capital shift has been the increased attention from Governments directed at the practice of using tax havens to evade tax obligations. Not long ago, Switzerland was the world's quintessential private banking centre. And although in some eyes it still is - after all, its banks still hold an estimated 30% of global offshore assets - its mantle is rapidly being taken over by the likes of Singapore and Hong Kong.

"I'm not surprised by the increased capital flows to Asia from Europe," Healy says. "The proof is that Asia has been booming - we've noticed a huge increase in demand for Singapore and Hong Kong company incorporation, corporate and personal bank accounts in Singapore and Hong Kong, and China is also on the increase."

Banking officials clearly agree with this. A chairman of one Swiss bank has said a Singapore office for the bank represented "a platform of growth in Asia". Another believes that "Singapore will be the fastest-growing offshore banking centre over the next five years".

Healy also believes that international investors and entrepreneurs prefer the positive image presented by Singapore and Hong Kong to the tax-haven image of some western offshore jurisdictions.

"The bottom line is this: Singapore and Hong Kong are built on internationally respected economic models and legal frameworks," says Healy. "The image they present is unrivaled in tax-free jurisdictions," he adds. "A Singapore company can be tax-free, looks good to customers and suppliers, and has absolutely no stigma attached to it."

As well as the business benefits of Singapore and Hong Kong company incorporation, there's a human angle to the tale. The 2008 Quality of Living Survey, produced by Mercer Human Resource Consulting in April, ranked Singapore as the most livable city in Asia, and 32nd out of the 215 international cities covered in the survey. Hong Kong comes in at 70th in the world, while China's Beijing comes in at 116th in the world. Singapore is the region leader in personal safety.

"Singapore really is the focal point of corporate and financial activity in Asia, and should remain so for the foreseeable future," Healy concludes.

About the Author

Mark Lazell is a PR and marketing specialist and freelance journalist with working knowledge and experience of the offshore financial industry in the Middle East and Asia-Pacific regions.

Resource Box

Healy Consultants is a corporate services firm providing international clients with a range of offshore company formation and corporate advisory services. Headquartered in Singapore, the firm has an exceptional knowledge of business set up procedures and a comprehensive understanding of legitimate, tax efficient financial structures. Visit Healy Consultant’s website for more detailed information on the firm’s services.

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Merchant cash advance transactions are big business. In the past few years, the industry has grown from a few providers to what some predict will be an almost 10 billion dollar industry. Search engine results for “merchant cash advance” produce literally thousands of provider results. How do you wade through all of these providers to find the right one for your business? How do you get the best deal? Here’s a quick guide to a successful merchant cash advance transaction.

Only “merchants” can apply. A merchant is someone that owns and operates a business that performs credit card processing functions as a way to accept customer payments. Providers have different requirements regarding the length of time you need to be in business- many also require a certain sales volume for approval. Generally, you’ll need to have at least a few thousand dollars in credit card sales to qualify for a cash advance transaction.

You have to qualify. Cash advances have become a popular method of financing because the approval process is fast and easy. But be careful- just because you’re “approved” doesn’t mean you’ll be able to repay the advance according to the agreement. Many unscrupulous providers have been known to approve businesses they know won’t be able make repayments as scheduled in order to collect the fees and penalties associated with defaulting.

Service agreements set the terms. Once you’re approved for a business cash advance, the provider will send you a service agreement with all of the important information- your advance amount, the “safe” retrieval rate (based on your daily credit card sales volume), and advance fees should all be included in this agreement. Since a merchant advance isn’t a loan, it isn’t subject to lending or usury laws- providers can basically charge whatever they want for services, up to 50% or more of the advance amount in some cases. Be extremely wary of agreements with fees that kick in if sales volume drops below a certain amount (called daily minimum fees) or “balloon” repayment clauses that require payment in full if certain conditions are or are not met.

Repayment is taken from daily sales revenue. You begin repayment the day you receive your advance check, much like a traditional loan. Before you take out an advance, you need to make sure that your current sales volume is able to support the repayment structure specified in the agreement.

What happens next? If you repay your advance according to the agreement, everything is fine. Repayment is usually quick- you should have the advance balance paid off within several months of initiating the transaction. The service agreement governs potential defaults- most agreements contain some kind of a “balloon” repayment clause (see above) or give the provider the authority to place a lien on business equipment or property if you can’t pay back the advance. Providers have also been known withdraw money straight from a business checking account. Before you sign the service agreement, you need to make sure that you know exactly what will happen if you can’t repay the advance according to the terms.

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Here’s a tough question: What’s the one thing nearly all business owners consistently overpay for?

The answer is pretty surprising: Postage costs. Stamps, shipping charges, even the time it takes to go to the post office can all add up, costing thousands of dollars or more each year, depending on the volume of mail you ship. Most business owners don’t know exactly how much it costs to mail a particular parcel- so they end up “over stamping” and overpaying- often by quite a bit. Postal stores and shipping providers have overhead costs to meet, too- you pay for these when you’re charged to ship an item.

You can avoid overpayment- and create big savings- by using a postage meter. A postage machine, or digital mailing system, can calculate postage costs precisely, so you’ll never overpay, and can be used in-office, saving you trips to have packages shipped from other providers. Here’s a quick guide to using a postage meter:

How meters work
Postage meters are leased, and work similarly to a parking meter. You “fill up” by making a payment, and postage charges are drawn against your balance. Most meters allow you to “refill” when necessary, and some calculate monthly charges and send a bill- similar to paying for electricity costs. In addition to paying the postage charges, you’ll also need to lease the equipment. You can choose machines with advance features (scales, document feeders) or a simple stamp machine that just prints postage stamps on your outgoing mail.

Features
Mailing machine equipment can be very simple (a stamp machine) or very complex- some machines fold, collate, stamp, and stack bulk mailings containing several different printed pages. If your business sends large bulk mailings, you could benefit from such a machine. Machines can also be fitted with equipment to ship packages- you’ll weigh the parcel and arrange for the pickup online in a few simple steps. No matter which features you need, you can take advantage of cost savings- with a postage meter, shipping costs can be calculated down to the penny for each mailing, so you’ll never overpay.

Costs and billing
Equipment leasing costs can range from less than $20 a month to hundreds for sophisticated equipment designed to handle large volume mailings. You’ll pay for the postage machine equipment (the meter) as one bill, and pay postal charges according to current rates. Some meters only allow you to “pre-pay” postage charges, while other companies allow you to “pay as you go,” where you receive a bill for both postage and meter use costs at the end of a specified period of time. Pay-as-you-go options usually carry additional charges or fees.
You’ll generally sign a lease contract that specifies your terms of use for the meter. Longer term lease contracts can be significantly less expensive- if you’re willing to commit to a longer period of time using the equipment, you’ll get a better monthly rate. You can also choose to purchase a maintenance or service contract that covers repairs or part replacements over the life of the machine.

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According to Forbes Magazine, businesses that don’t accept credit cards lose as much as 70% of sales to competitors who do allow this method of payment. With the number of Americans that use credit cards to make purchases increasing every day, you can’t afford to lose this many potential customers or clients. Here’s a quick and easy, real-world tested guide to accepting credit cards:

Merchant Accounts: The Basics

The merchant account is the “middle man” between a credit card account and a business’ bank account. Businesses that only process cards online usually use gateway software that collects credit card information, where retail businesses typically use credit card swipe machines. Whichever method you use, it’s necessary to have a merchant account to collect the information, verify it with the customer’s credit card provider, and make the transfer of funds from their account to yours. Merchant account providers often “bundle” the costs of online processing software into the account service costs.

Billing
Generally, merchant account providers will assess a fee for each transaction, whether a sale or a return (a “chargeback”). These fees are a portion of the transaction amount or a specified dollar amount. Many companies require monthly minimums, and will charge your business the remaining amount if this minimum is not met. Billing occurs automatically, as each “batch” of transactions is processed, typically at the close of each business day. Vendors provide reports detailing transactions, charges, and payments made at specified intervals.

Transaction Types

The fee assessed for each transaction typically depends on the way the sale or return is recorded. Swipe machines or those with signature capture devices carry the lowest risk of fraud, and thus transactions are less expensive to process. Online transaction s or those that are “keyed in” are typically more expensive, depending on the security measures taken to record the transaction. Vendors assess higher fees for “chargeback” or return transactions.

Service Contracts

Most businesses sign a service agreement that covers a specified period of time. Canceling your account before the service term expires generally carries penalties and fees, much like breaking a lease. Your per-transaction and monthly minimum rates are set when you apply for an account and sign the service agreement. The best rates are reserved for those businesses with a stable financial history and high credit card sales volume- many vendors offer “tiered” rate structures, where the per-transaction rate decreases the higher your sales volume rises. Though newer businesses just starting out might not be eligible for the best rates right away, they can negotiate for better terms as the business becomes more profitable.

Equipment and Software

Credit card processing equipment and software costs are often included in the service contract you sign with a provider. If you own or manage a retail store, chances are you’ll only need hardware, such as a swipe terminal or a signature capture device. Businesses that sell products online can puchase “gateway” software that is billed along with the merchant account service bill. Credit card terminals can be purchased, financed, or leased. It’s always a good idea to ask if there are any discounted models, or if a certain model is included with an account agreement.

Choosing an Account Provider: Where to Start

The most popular places to find a merchant services provider are through referral or using a vendor match service. You can consult businesses similar to yours in terms of size and sales volume: Ask who they use as a provider, if they are satisfied with the service they receive, and if they have any particular recommendations. A vendor search service allows you to compare several different companies, ask for quotes, and choose a vendor based on your requirements. Make sure you compare several different merchant account providers before signing a contract for services.

Merrin Muxlow is a writer, yoga instructor, and law student based in San Diego, California. She writes extensively for Resource Nation, a company that provides resources for business owners, and is a frequent contributor to several sites and programs that offer tools for entrepreneurs, including Dell and BizEquity.

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Article Contributed by Tony Massaro

Do you really have a handle on the things that cost your business money? Are you as prepared as you need to be to handle incidents? Do you know how to improve your bottom line in this tight economy?

Projections for the rest of 2009 are not good. Job shops aren't getting orders and they're failing to hit their production run projections. Schedules are being pushed off a couple of months.

So, how should you spend the rest of the year if you want to remain profitable? As tax partner at Porte Brown LLC, an Elk Grove Village accounting firm that serves privately held businesses, I suggest you:

- Thoroughly review your business processes
- Become willing to reinvent the business
- Get aware of Lean Manufacturing principles, even if yours is a service business

Why You Need to Evaluate Your Business Now

The processes and structures that worked before may not work now in this new economy. You may need to develop new processes or adapt existing ones to meet your immediate needs. For example, your business may benefit from:

- Regular management or employee meetings to report on the status of business activities.
- Tracking systems to ensure that customer requests are received, assigned and fulfilled. Now is the time to improve customer service and increase customer loyalty.
- Quality control processes to ensure that the same high level of customer satisfaction is maintained.
- Incorporating budgeting procedures to ensure that costs are controlled, properly allocated, and charged back to the client, if appropriate.
- A defined process for monitoring receivables and collecting on accounts that become past due.

How to Effectively Evaluate You Business

When you evaluate your business, you want to avoid becoming part of the problem. You want to look out for self-fulfilling prophecies. I've seen it thousands of times with my clients --When it's all gloom and doom, people start pulling back. This automatically leads to even more gloom and doom.

Here's what you should do instead...

1. Take a fine-tooth comb to your business and make sure your processes are right. Put all of your processes into a flowchart. Look at everything you make. How can you do it better? Can one person do two machines?

2. Look at your industry's best practices including: lean manufacturing, accounting and marketing. This is the time to align your business processes so your operation is more effective and more profitable. If you follow this tip, you will minimize waste and reduce inventory.

3. Get a handle on which operations are making you the most profits. If you have three different products, or services, put the costs and profits down on paper so you can see them. Allocate sales costs, labor, overhead and other items and then determine which services or products are profitable.

Ultimately, the review may mean you reinvent your business. And, don't be afraid of reinventing your business.

Why You Shouldn't Fear Reinventing Your Business

America has reinvented itself several times. You, as a business owner or executive, must do the same thing. You need to evaluate what your business does and reinvent it so you can compete during this down economy.

A review inevitably means decisions. Often, those decisions will involve people. I'm a big advocate of reacting fast. If you feel overstaffed and there's no light at the end of the tunnel, then somebody has to go - as distasteful as it is.

You often can build back up with temporary help. Temps are good because you can send them home when business tails off again.

What You Should NEVER Cut

When you're evaluating your business and making necessary changes, there is ONE thing you should not change. Do NOT cut your marketing budget. Cutting marketing and advertising is the wrong thing to do when times slow. You're already concerned about the lack of new customers. So, if you cut your marketing budget, how do you expect to get more new customers into your sales funnel?

Instead, you should be looking at your business processes and systems. Find out how you can run your business more efficiently and more effectively.

By following these tips you can increase your bottom line, even during the recession. And, if you need help – don't be afraid to ask the experts!

About the Author
Tony Massaro, CPA and Partner of Porte Brown LLC, helps small to medium sized business owners evaluate their business and improve their bottom lines even in a slowing economy. To discover how you can remain profitable simply by reviewing your business processes and analyzing how you can manage a more effective and efficient business go to: http://www.portebrown.com

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Article Contributed by David Gruttadaurio

With everyone bombarded by email overload, do you really think your ezine is being read?

A Nielsen Norman Group Report revealed that the typical email newsletter gets 51 seconds of your reader's time.

That was three years ago. Today, many say its closer to 26 seconds. And, that's if your email newsletter is even opened.

You're Not as Popular as You Think

While you believe YOUR ezines are special and opened like gifts on Christmas morning, remember this: Dozens of emails are routinely wiped out daily in one swoop with the push of the delete key.

Even if the reader recognizes your name, you can be expunged just because they're having a busy day or your email got caught in a large block of spam.

Now, I'm not suggesting that you stop doing email newsletters. In fact, I advise you to do an email newsletter on a weekly basis. But, I also suggest doing a monthly print newsletter.

Here's why...

6 Ways Print Newsletters Beat Email Newsletters – And Why They Need to Be Part of Your Marketing Mix

1. Printed mail gets delivered – It's never blocked or caught in spam filters. Faulty connections, email authentication and webmail service idiosyncrasies are not issues. And, you have no worries about connection speeds.

2. Print newsletters have more perceived value – Think about it: How many companies are willing to do this? Your clients aren't stupid. They understand the energy, cost and time required to send them a great newsletter every month. It will get their immediate attention.

3. Print newsletters let you use unlimited amount of images – A picture really is worth a thousand words. Print newsletters are not shackled by bandwidth. That means you can use a variety of text, graphics and formatting styles to capture the interest of your clients.

4. Print newsletter are sticky - Print newsletters have great 'hang-time'. Not only are they likely to be read from start to finish, they usually get passed around. Hand-along readership can be as high as four-to-one. Talk about free marketing!

5. Print newsletters offer convenient and comfortable reading - Printed newsletters are much easier on the eyes. Reading articles of any length on a computer screen is uncomfortable and often inconvenient. Plus, a print newsletter allows you to mark sections you find interesting, take it to work and leave it there to be picked up by workmates.

6. Print newsletters stand out and get noticed – By using color, logos and a familiar return address, a print newsletter is easy to spot. With an inbox filled with subject lines, every message looks the same.

Here's Your Best Bet

Make no mistake. There is a place for electronic communication with your customers. Websites and email are an important part of any business.

But the hands down best choice for keeping customers and getting more referrals and building relationships is to include print newsletters within your marketing mix

You can even offer your customers a choice. They will see that you really care about what they want, not just what you are willing to provide for them.

And that's what relationship marketing is all about, isn't it?

About the Author:
Print Newsletter Marketing Expert David Gruttadaurio was tired of wasting money on marketing that didn't work. So he searched for a marketing tool that would give him more clients for his cleaning business. Then he found newsletter marketing! Through print newsletters he was able to triple his sales. Now, discover how he got and retained more clients with his FREE "Profit Exploding Newsletter Secrets Report" at http://www.NewslettersMadeForYou.com

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Very often solo business owners know they have a need to partner with a Virtual Assistant (VA), but are not really sure how a virtual assistant can help them grow their business - they don't fully understand what services the VA provides. This is usually discussed during the client consultation process, but sometimes the client can still feel a little overwhelmed and are not sure about delegating their workload - in fact that is how one of my clients felt recently!

If you've not partnered with a Virtual Assistant yet, these tasks will make an ideal 'first project' for you to work together on. If you're already working with a Virtual Assistant, have a planning session with her right away.

By letting go of these five tasks that you SHOULD be delegating ensures that you can free up your time and focus on your clients and income generating activities:

#1 Designing promotions

Need to send seasonal cards to your clients? Or maybe you have a special holiday promotion? A VA can help you here by designing custom cards, calendars, flyers, postcards, brochures, or any other promotional item.

#2 Organizing and maintaining your mailing list

Is your mailing list all together in one place? Or is it on bits of paper and business cards that you've collected over several months, or even years? Do you even have a mailing list? Your VA can help you here by setting up and maintaining a mailing list for you. She can maintain your list all year round so that you can send regular mailings and promotions to your clients.

#3 Sending out your promotions

So, now you have your custom-designed promotions, and your up-to-date mailing list, but do you have the time to send out your promotions? A VA can help you here by sending out your seasonal cards and promotions for you. Once you have your promotional literature and mailing list organised, then your VA can save you HOURS of time by sending them out on your behalf - via email or post.

#4 Planning your Event

Thinking of hosting a teleclass or workshop? Your VA can organize and plan that event for you--from sending out the invitations to collating the RSVPs, producing the literature, or booking the venue - with today's technology all of this can be done online!

#5 Helping you plan your marketing campaigns

If you're already thinking ahead, then your VA can assist you by helping you to organize your year-round marketing campaigns.

Your VA is your long-term partner in your business, and a person to hand over those time-draining projects to, giving you the time to focus on your business.

And they want your business to succeed just as much as you do!

Online Business Manager & Virtual Assistant, Tracey Lawton, supports professional speakers, coaches, and authors to operate an efficient, organized, and profitable business. Learn how to create an efficient and organized office in 7 EASY steps, and receive free how-to articles at http://www.OfficeOrganizationSuccess.com.

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Article Contributed by Satish Patel

As an ex-CPA and now an entrepreneur managing several small to mid-sized business, I am still amazed at how small business owners from a non-accounting background get duped and fall into crisis due to improper bookkeeping and accounting practices. In a worst case scenario you can get embezzled by someone you trusted to handle your books, if you are not careful or your business might fall into dire straits due to improper management of business records.

Some of the most common mistakes which can bleed your business dry and should be avoided at all costs are:

1) Failing to seek professional help and trying to do it all yourself or worse seeking unqualified help from family or friends:

It can be understood that as a small business owner you are short on funds and might chaff under the idea of seeking professional help. You are probably thinking “my business is too small to hire professional help; I am sure I can manage this on my own” or “my wife/son/relative/friend has some experience in bookkeeping and can manage this for me”.

A big mistake you might not realize immediately! If you are trying to do everything for your business from taking care of day to day operations, to selling and marketing and also handling your own books despite not being qualified to do so, will create serious consequences. Multi-tasking in this manner takes you away your focus from core business. Eventually as you become more and more busy, the company hits rock bottom. How can you sincerely justify the amount of time you spend on doing tasks such as bookkeeping which can be outsourced at much cheaper rates? Your time is precious and should be spent on direct revenue generation activities. Moreover if you are not qualified to handle book in proper consistent manner, you are doing more harm than good for your business. The same rule applies when hiring a friend, neighbor or relative. Before you financial record gets too sloppy and messed up, you need to get professional help in place. Bookkeeping and accounting is too important to experiment and play around with.

2) Failing to use logical accounting structure and systems in place:

Use a proper accounting system to keep track of your payments and receipts. Issue all your checks in the correct sequence and do the same with sales receipts. This will make it easy for you - and the IRS, if necessary, to track all your accounting data.

Do not maintain your accounts in such a way that the IRS will have doubts about your business. The IRS will be much happier if you have maintained your accounts in such a way that your entries can be traced right to the source.

This is easier said than done. You need to become aware of the proper accounting chart/structure for your business type. For example don’t classify expenses basis vendor names, the list might get overly long and exhaustive, instead use types of expenses like telephone charges, electricity charges, fuel costs, employee costs etc. You cannot store all bills in disarray in a shoe box and pray for divine intervention. If you are not familiar with your industry specific chart of accounts, your best bet is to contact an accounting or bookkeeping professional who can help you out. They will help you answer the following questions: Is your chart of accounts structured to your business? Do you know your breakeven point? Can you distinguish between your direct variable costs and fixed overhead costs? Developing a well-structured chart of accounts is the first step toward providing you with such answers to elemental business questions.

3) Failure to use separate credit cards for business and personal expenses.

Use one set of credit cards for business-related expenses, such as those related to travel and purchases - and another set to make personal purchases such as eating out with your family. That way, you can check your credit card statements easily and file those related to your business in your office files.

Set up separate bank accounts in the same way. Issue checks related to your business only from your business account and make all personal payments from your personal account. Follow this system strictly to avoid any confusion come tax time. Also do not forget to prepare a bank reconciliation statement and cross check all your entries.

4) Failure to maintain consistent and regular filing system:

Another major mistake indulged by small business owners is not maintaining regular and systematic filing system. A proper filing system should be broken by receivables, payables, bank statements and tax records. Depending upon your business needs, you might also want to keep a set of file folders by job. A good file system works in tandem with your written policies and procedures. Your policies should state where records are filed, how many copies there are and for how long they are stored.

At year-end closing, the year’s non-permanent files should be bound together and archived in a safe location (usually a metal fire-proof cabinet or stored off-site). Keeping multiple years’ worth of receipts together in one file drawer leads to wasted time filing and retrieving records.

In addition annual archiving helps tremendously in the event of an audit or even a lawsuit.

5) Failing to use proper technological help:

There is an old saying “Time is Money”. Bearing this in mind small business owners need to get techno savvy and study the various software packages available that can do loads of tedious bookkeeping and accounting tasks in a jiffy. The benefits from selecting a right accounting software for you business includes:

· Generate reports and bank reconciliation statement saving overdraw expenses

· Get on demand customized reports

· Simple to prepare year-end tax note

· Automatic reminders on payments and receipts

· Automatic downloads on payroll, credit card and bank statements

Still it is shocking how many businesses do not enjoy the benefits of such software and still try to do bookkeeping manually in a disorganized manner. If you are unsure of which software will help you most, seek help from professionals. They will definitely council you to make the right choice.

6) Failing to have regular back-up systems in place:

Next costly mistake to avoid is not having a back-up system in place. Honestly there is no excuse for not having proper and regularized back-up of your online bookkeeping and accounting systems.

7) Failing to prepare proper bookkeeping procedures and accounting guidelines to be followed:

This is perhaps the most important task a small business owner MUST undertake but usually avoid. They feel they don’t have the time to frame written bookkeeping and accounting procedures and there business set up is too informal for such rules and regulations to be established. Trust me; this can really land your business in hot waters. How can there be accountability and responsibilities if the correct wireframe of policies and procedures are not in place? Proper accounting policies and procedures ensure consistency and eliminate confusion when processing transactions especially when in future you have more employees handling the same tasks and sharing jobs and responsibilities. This eliminates mistakes and fraud. Take time to draft well thought out procedures which help maintain checks and balances. Your policies should cover all future possibilities to make it effective with room for modifications and improvement as per increasing complexity of growing and evolving business.

If you use these tips, you will avoid the pitfalls that many small business owners fall into in the maintenance of their records. When it comes to bookkeeping and accounting, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!

About Author:
Satish Patel is the President of Analtyix Solutions (www.analytixsolutions.com) which is a fast growing back-office service company providing web-based bookkeeping and accounting, tax preparation and part-time CFO services. Patel has a degree in International Management from MS University in Baroda, India and a degree in Accounting from California State University at Fullerton, USA. He has 20 years practical experience as an entrepreneur, managing several small to mid-sized businesses has made him an expert in day to day operations, human resource, technology, marketing, financial and strategic management.

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Accounting Software Strengths

Easy to use by non accountants requiring no previous Accounting knowledge and is basically a list of sales and a list of purchases on preset excel spreadsheets. Each workbook is arranged as 12 monthly spreadsheets with preset columns and uses an entry code letter to analyse both sales and expenditure.

Cash and bank spreadsheets are included as optional extras for those businesses that require them with a built in automated bank reconciliation. The sheet is designed to be completed by copying the figures from the bank statement into the bank spreadsheet and the bank reconciliation is achieved by also entering the statement total which is automatically checked against the entries made.

Monthly profit and loss account also includes a financial health check based upon an automated tax forecast to enable businesses to monitor their financial performance. By entering drawings the package then compares the net profit made with the likely tax liability plus the drawings.

Quarterly vat returns are generated for vat registered business and is also suitable for non vat registered business. To produce a vat return clients simply go to the vat file and select the quarter end date from a drop down menu and the figures for the vat return are automatically generated.

The vat calculations can be disabled by non vat registered small businesses by simply changing the standard vat rate from 17.5 to zero making the accounting software suitable for both vat registered and non vat registered businesses.

The accounting package includes a stand alone sales invoice generator which requires invoices generated to be manually input into the sales sheet.

The fixed asset schedule is preset with the capital allowance tax rates to automatically calculate capital allowances when fixed assets are entered. Depreciation is also automatically calculated with preset percentages that can be changed as required.

A major benefit of using this small business bookkeeping software is the templates are arranged in such a way to automatically generate an excel copy of the self assessment tax return. The excel self assessment tax return is arranged in the same layout as the official inland revenue form with the same box numbers making it easy to copy the figures from one to the other for submission.

Accounting Software Weaknesses

The Self-employed Accounting Software UK is based upon single entry of transactions and does not produce a balance sheet which is an optional requirement for self employed and therefore not a problem for the vast majority of businesses. DIY Accounting actually recommend clients who are self employed and wish to produce a balance sheet to use their Limited Company accounts package which does produce a balance sheet being based not on single entry but on double entry principles. The small business accounting software is suitable for a single tax year, the latest being 2007-08 and does not cater for accounting periods other than April to April. There are benefits in anyone self employed adopting the standard April to April financial year as this avoids tax allowances from two separate years being a feature of the accounts. When used by small businesses using the cash accounting system the bookkeeping entries to the sales and purchase sheets must be entered according to the dates money is paid or received rather than the dates invoices were issued. At the end of the financial year any invoices not yet entered require to be listed to adjust the final profit and loss account figures. This a major disadvantage if using the vat cash accounting scheme rather than the Accounting Software being reviewed.

Very Low Priced

At £12.99 the accounting software is basically available for loose change and will save many businesses the need to employ an accountant potentially saving hundreds of pounds in professional fees. For the financial year 2008-09 the basic package for non vat registered business is available at just £11.99 and the standard accounting software for vat registered small business is £12.99.

Other Features

The product has a stock control feature to monitor any stock losses. The small business accounting software contains a wages interface that fully integrates the DIY Accounting Payroll Software when those files are saved into the same folder as the accounting software files. Being written on excel spreadsheets all transactions are visible and capable of being changed by for example overwriting any errors as opposed to a database system that requires new transactions to be entered to reverse previous entries. The sales and purchase spreadsheets include columns for entering CIS tax deductions and payments and the certificate numbers. The CIS tax being then automatically entered on the self assessment tax return. As the small business accounting software is written on excel spreadsheets then it is essential that users have a version of excel from 1998 onwards installed to use the program. The accounting software also works fine with an Open Source spreadsheet package.

Conclusion: to Buy or not to Buy

Exceptionally good value, very easy to use and produces exactly what every small business requires, automated accounts requiring no bookkeeping skills and no previous accounting experience with the valuable end product of a fully automated self assessment tax return.

Terry Cartwright qualified as a Chartered Management Accountant and Chartered Company Secretary in 1971. A successful business career followed as Head of Finance for major companies in the UK and several consultancy appointments. In 2006 he created DIY Accounting producing Accounting Software for self employed and small companies that use simple accounts spreadsheets to automate tax returns.

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Running a payroll for larger organisations with full time accounting staff is easy. Full time professionals are employed or the payroll function may be outsourced to a payroll bureau. For the small business the payroll task often falls to the proprietor demanding even more time to familiarise with current payroll legislation and a not insignificant amount of administration time that could be better spent making profits than number crunching. For small business organisations with five to ten employees calculating the income tax and national insurance contributions in producing the weekly payroll can easily take an hour or more each week. An hour that could be better spent earning profits or at the very least having an extra hour of free time each week. Free time that every small business owner value at a premium since the majority of small business owners either work or think about work from dawn to dusk 7 days a week. A payroll software package to satisfy the PAYE requirements can be just one part of making that small business more efficient.

Small businesses that fail to operate a sound payroll system can produce a negative effect on the employees. The pay an employee receives is expected, often spent or spoken for on receipt and provided the amount is a competitive rate would only rarely have an effect on staff relations. However operating a Payroll system that does not provide each employee with a payslip is like telling your employee he has received a personal letter that was opened for him and discarded as not important. To the employee a payslip is very important. And so important in that every employer has a legal responsibility to provide each employee with a payslip and at the end of each year a P60 End of Year Employees Certificate. A Payroll Software package will satisfy both the legal requirement and the employee requirements. Failure to provide employees with payslips can only reduce the respect hat employee has for his employer. Every employee must receive a payslip that shows the amount of income tax and national insurance deducted from the gross pay. Every employer must also calculate the employer national insurance contribution. Employers not using a payroll software package such as available from DIY Accounting Payroll Software must design their own payslip to give to employees to satisfy legal requirements.

In the UK producing a weekly or monthly payroll can be a burdensome task to comply with the HMCE requirements. HMCE provide much expertise advice in this area both via their website and each year through the distribution of the Employers CD-Rom. To fully appreciate all the technicalities and complete all the correct documents such as the P11 Deductions Working sheet is time consuming. It does not have to be a problem. Payroll Software can automate this knowledge and functions and is available at insignificant cost. The DIY Accounting Payroll Software package is available for five to twenty employees at a cost of 15 to 25 pounds. That is a payroll software package that could save a small business over an hour a week, for twenty employees more like two hours, for less than 50p per week. All small business owners should at least consider suitable efficient payroll software.

Many payroll software packages are written using databases and can put many small business owners off using them due to both the cost and the fear of the unknown complexity of using such a payroll package. Many payroll software packages written on a database provide an excellent solution but have a tendency to be extremely politically correct and cover all potential rules and regulations and consequently become more complex to operate as they can demand at least a minimum knowledge of the payroll system. There are other PAYE solutions. The DIY Accounting Payroll Software is written on excel spreadsheets requiring no payroll experience and a minimum of entries to produce all the essential calculations of income tax and employees and employers national insurance. In addition excel copies of the time consuming P11 Deductions working sheet, P60 Employees Certificate and the P35 Annual Employers Return are all automated to save the small business valuable administration time.

A significant advantage of a payroll software system written on excel is that it can also be used with an open office spreadsheet package but not least all the entries are visible and therefore transparent. Errors and mistakes can be easily corrected simply by changing the numbers on the payroll ensuring the payroll is produced both quickly and accurately. Payroll Software is an effective tool that should receive serious consideration by all small business proprietors.

Payroll Software also has the advantage because it can be simple and fast to use of avoiding late payments to the revenue and the consequent unwanted letters and potential fines this can invoke. By having all the information required for the monthly or quarterly revenue payments late penalties can be avoided and by producing the Annual Employers return on time small business owners can submit their returns online and receive a tax free online filing bonus. The current online foiling bonus being 150 pounds and substantially more than the payroll software might have cost.

Terry Cartwright qualified as a Chartered Management Accountant and Chartered Company Secretary in 1971. A successful business career followed as Head of Finance for major companies in the UK and several consultancy appointments. In 2006 he created DIY Accounting producing Accounting Software for self employed and small companies that use simple accounts spreadsheets to automate tax returns.

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Article Contributed by Andy Lax

In every industry, with fire in their bellies, pitchmen and women embellish claims, hoping to reel in buyers by using smoke and mirrors. Consider the cosmetics industry, for example. We incessantly hear about the latest miracle anti-aging cream, able to reduce lines and wrinkles by x percent in y time. Elasticity, firmness and skin radiance dramatically increase, and with the continued use of product, one’s face defies gravity even more than airplanes.

Too many times, sadly, the buyer reports that the given product did not live up to claims. There goes money out the window yet thousands continue to search the holy grail of cosmetics – for the right product, at times regardless of expense.

Even in my own beloved merchant account field, declarations are made to entice and galvanize merchant interest. Accuracy and honesty be damned – all in a concerted effort to close a sale. In the spirit of safeguarding consumer protection, the following lists some common merchant account claims that may truly be misleading and purposely so:

We will give you z amount of dollars if you find a better offer – Imagine calling this merchant account provider. You report, “Smith Merchant Account Associates gave me a list of fees that are lower than yours. Please forward payment.” You will then proceed to hear that Smith has hidden fees or is a fly-by-night.

There are too many merchant account providers for any company to proclaim that it has the best rates across the board. It’s better to perform your own due diligence and choose the company that you determine has the lowest fees.

I can almost guarantee that you will not get any money by one merchant account provider if you discover a better fee structure somewhere else. (How’s that for a claim?)

We accept 99% of applicants – This is highly unlikely in light of the fact that an underwriting team assesses each merchant’s application. One criterion that is used in determining whether an application is accepted is the merchant’s personal credit score. Too many business owners do not have the requisite scores to obtain an account. Other business owners may run enterprises that are on a prohibitive list, precluding them access to credit card processing capability.

Sign up with us and get the first month free – Upon closer examination, realize that your processing costs will not be free. Your monthly fee may likely be waived which may be construed as generous. Still, when you compare merchant account providers, look at the total projected costs for a year’s time to make a suitable determination.

We offer free credit card processing terminals – Any honest merchant account company should disclose the caveats associated with the “free terminal” program. When a prospective customer investigates purchasing our “free terminal,” I am quick to delineate the terms and conditions. It may be better to just purchase a terminal outright.

Our credit card rates are as low as - In the merchant account field, a merchant's rates are dependent on the type of credit card that a customer offers. If a customer uses a check card, for example, the merchant account provider's rates are lower than if a customer uses a standard Visa/MasterCard card. Such savings may be passed on to the merchant.

Therefore, a merchant account provider may disclose the lowest rate that the company charges. (We've even had to do this on our website as prospective clients need to know that we provide discounts for certain types of cards, too.) But it behooves the merchant account provider, in an ethical sense, to explain that the lowest rate is not across the board and the rates go higher for different types of cards and transactions.

Limited Time Offer – These three words have been used in every form of advertising, in every sector of business, since the Stone Age. Yes, merchant account providers may run intermittent special offers, but more times than not, such wording is just used to lure the “impulse buyer.”

Our company was voted best by … – What entity voted for you? What criteria did they use? I am not aware of any prominent organization that ranks merchant account providers. And if there was such an organization, do they really evaluate the hundreds, if not thousands, of existing providers? (I have seen several sites list the “best merchant account providers,” but my emails are not returned when I asked them to evaluate our company’s pricing.)

Use us because we’re a bank – Please note that all reputable merchant account providers work in concert with acquiring banks. Going directly with a bank may or may not prove advantageous.

If you open an account with us, we’ll give you … -- Merchant account providers may provide you with any meaningless gift. I’ve seen several, for instance, that promise to register you with thousands of search engines. This is not necessary and will not help your site’s visibility. It’s just another marketing tool to make the prospective buyer think that he/she is gaining something for nothing

We get better rates from Visa/Mastercard – Merchant account providers who assert that their rates are better from the cardholding associations do so in an attempt to make merchants believe that they pass savings onto them. All providers deal with the same Interchange rate structure although some may have less “bin” or basis points that they have to apportion to their banks. The merchant account provider/acquiring bank relationship often has no bearing on the rates charged to the merchant.

Our bank is the largest one this side of the Mississippi – This can either be construed as a positive or a negative. Will the merchant receive exemplary customer support or will he/she be lost in the shuffle? How about the rates? Smaller providers may be hungrier for business, and may offer superior fees. Bigger doesn’t always mean better. (Where have I heard that before?)

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Of course, there are a number of other tempting phrases that you'll see emanating from merchant account companies' websites. Remain vigilant, be an educated consumer, a smart shopper, and a wise soul. As my Grandma always says, "You can't believe everything you read. (Of course, this truism does not apply to anything that I write.) She also says, "There's no truth in advertising." (My grandmother is very cynical, or "realistic," as she puts it.) Let the buyer beware!

Andy Lax has worked in the credit card processing industry for over five years and is now an Account Manager at IntelliCollect, a merchant account provider that enables business owners to accept credit cards and electronic checks.

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Article contributed by Diana Ennen

You would have to live under a rock to not hear about the latest craze that is spanning the globe - Virtual Assistants. With the economic outlook diminishing, and more and more companies working with fewer employees, businesses are flocking to find the right virtual assistant for their team. The need is simple: Someone that can do the work virtually, professionally, and with the upmost of confidentiality. Fortunately, Virtual Assistants meet all those needs and more.

Virtual Assistants, like their clientele, are highly skilled professionals working as independent contractors from their home offices. Virtual Assistants use leading edge technology to communicate work assignments via the Internet, e-mail or disk transfer. Traditional methods such as regular mail and overnight shipping are also used. While most Virtual Assistants will never meet their clients, it is not unusual to find a VA providing pickup and delivery service in their local area. Many have found success in a combination of the two, local and virtual clients. And what is even more impressive, is that most Virtual Assistants now realize the amazing power of the Internet and their client base spans globally.

The ultimate goal of Virtual Assistants is to partner with their clients. By partnering the VA learns all they can about their clients' business to become a trusted and valued member of the team—an extension of their organization. At the same time, the VA only charges for time on tasks so it ultimately saves the client in overhead expenses while affording them the necessary time to take care of more business.

A perfect example of a Client/VA partnership is the sole proprietor; let's say a consultant, who charges $300 an hour for his consulting services. The consultant is spending time each week preparing presentations and teleseminars, rummaging through paperwork, marketing his business, keeping up with the social networks, generating mailings and sorting through the tons of email he gets on a weekly basis. Since the consultant is doing this work himself he is paying $300 an hour for these services when, in reality, it would benefit him to partner with a VA at a rate of $40 to $95/hr (depending on specialty) and save tons of money a year. Plus, he could be generating more revenue because he would have more time available for doing what he does best—consulting. See how it works? As evidenced in this example, clients can't afford NOT to have a virtual assistant on their team.

In addition to the financial rewards for the client, the following list reinforces other areas clients benefit when working with a virtual assistant.

Personalized attention – The virtual assistant works one-on-one with clients and often knows their clients' business better than they do. That personalized attention allows clients to keep things under control and more organized and often relieves the pressure of having to do it all and remember it all. How great would it feel to just say to your VA, please handle this for me and know that it was done.

Exceptional service – Virtual Assistants are a proud bunch and take great pride in the Virtual Assistant Industry. One of the ways that VAs protect the integrity of this Industry, is to always offer exceptional services. Virtual Assistants want their clients to tell others about them and how having a VA on their team is one of the best business investments they have ever made. Therefore, most Virtual Assistants go above and beyond what is expected of them to make sure the work is done accurately, professionally, and successfully.

Experience in the latest technology – A virtual assistant knows that there's always an easier and better way to do things and are constantly looking for those ways. Most continue to update their skills and network extensively with others to learn the latest and greatest tools out there.

A colleague to brainstorm ideas with - Have you ever had this great idea, but just couldn't bring it to fruition because you couldn't get it all together? Not anymore. Virtual Assistants are there to brainstorm and work with you to help you bring those visions to reality.

No benefits/no equipment/no office space - That's a given. It's obvious that clients won't be paying for their Virtual Assistants' office space or equipment. But in today's economy, think how truly important that is. By not having to pay for someone's electric and office use, that saves money. Money clients can spend in growing their businesses.

Specific knowledge of your niche – This is perhaps one of the greatest benefits that a virtual assistant can offer - specific knowledge of a clients' particular niche. Virtual Assistants specialize in different areas, fine tuning their skills always striving to be the best in that niche. Therefore, when you partner with a virtual assistant that specializes in the area of your business, you have someone who knows the lingo and knows the ins and outs and what works and what doesn't. It's a win/win for all.

What types of services can a virtual assistant perform? Sit back and be amazed. Virtual Assistants can assist with tasks as simple as transcribing every day correspondence to as detailed as implementing an entire marketing campaign. Virtual assistant services include the following: publicity and marketing, article and press release writing and distribution, social networking updates, legal, medical and general transcription, bookkeeping, web design, administrative tasks, and so much more.

As Virtual Assistants become as commonplace in the workforce as the computer in everyone's office is now, there's never been a better time to analyze what your business needs are and how the right virtual assistant will meet those needs. Stop by our site at Virtual Word Publishing, www.virtualwordpublishing.com for complete information on what a virtual assistant is and how you can find that virtual assistant to add to your team. Also, if you feel a career in the Virtual Assistant Industry is right for you, email me at diana@virtualwordpublishing.com for our free business informational package. Today's the day to start running your business better. The start begins with one simple step – Hire a Virtual Assistant.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Diana Ennen is the co-author of numerous books including Virtual Assistant: the Series, Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA with Kelly Poelker and Words From Home: Start, Run and Profit from a Home-Based Word Processing Business. She specializes in publicity and book marketing and is president of Virtual Word Publishing. Email us at diana@virtualwordpublishing.com for a free business informational package.

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Are you one of those people who are guilty of just stuffing your receipts into a folder and thinking 'I'll sort that out when I've got time'? Do you need a more organised bookkeeping system, nothing too flash, just something that's simple and easy to manage?

Follow my tips below and you'll soon have that simple and easy-to-manage bookkeeping system that won't bring you out in a cold sweat whenever you hear the words 'tax return'. And I promise you, it works!

1. Gather your supplies!

Get hold of a large ring binder, divider cards, A4/letter-sized paper, stapler, pen, all your business receipts and invoices, plastic folders and a large coffee (or whatever else you prefer!).

Then lock yourself away for a couple of hours.

2. Get Organized

You now need to organize your ring binder into the following sections:

Invoices - Unpaid -- this section is for your outgoing business expenses that have not yet been paid i.e. supplier invoices. Write on the top of each invoice the date it needs to be paid by and place all unpaid invoices in 'date to be paid' order with the earliest one on top.

Invoices - Paid -- this section is for your outgoing business expenses that have been paid or you've paid at the time service was rendered, i.e. that ream of paper that you bought from the office supplies store. Staple each receipt on to a blank piece of paper rather than just putting them directly into the ring binder. This just makes it easier to see at a glance all your receipts and you can also make notes on the paper. Also write on the top of each invoice/piece of paper the method of payment.

Receipts - Unpaid -- this section is for all your invoices that you have sent to clients that have not yet been paid. Write on the top date payment is due and put them in date order so that it's easier if you have to chase overdue invoices.

Receipts - Paid -- this section is for all your invoices that have been paid. Write on the top the date it was paid and how it was paid i.e. cash, check, credit card etc.

Bank Statements -- this section is self-explanatory! Just keep everything in date order.

3. Schedule It In

Now that you've got your system in place, schedule in each week/month to keep your bookkeeping binder up-to-date. In between updating place all your receipts and invoices in a plastic folder so that everything is together when you come to update your system--it would be too time-consuming to add each receipt as you get it!

What Next?

Depending on how far you want to handle your own accounts, you can either hand your very organised bookkeeping binder over to your accountant at the end of the financial year for them to prepare your final accounts, or you can maintain your own books with the use of financial accounting software.

Either way, you've now got a bookkeeping system that is simple and easy-to- manage and won't cause you to break out into a cold sweat at the very mention of the words 'tax return'.

Online Business Manager & Virtual Assistant, Tracey Lawton, supports professional speakers, coaches, and authors to operate an efficient, organized, and profitable business. Learn how to create an efficient and organized office in 7 EASY steps, and receive free how-to articles at http://www.OfficeOrganizationSuccess.com.

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On average 25% of the Total Cost of Doing Business is tied to inefficiencies...the waste of time, energy or materials, and I've had many CEOs tell me that 25% is on the low end.

Nobel Prize winner Ronald Coase, of Coase's Law , says that there is friction/costs involved with being in business.There is the original friction or cost of finding suppliers, employees and customers. There's the on-going friction or transactional costs, and then there's the greatest friction of all...the friction of failure.

Prior to entering the training field in 1982 I had a real job as the corporate credit manager for a regional company based in Denver. My duties as the credit manager included the approval of new credit customers and the management (not collection) of past due A/R. I soon found that on average 70% plus of all past due customers had not paid on time due to "something going wrong somewhere." In the process of fixing things that had gone wrong I found that I could identify areas of opportunity for improvement throughout the entire supply chain thus driving down everyone’s cost of doing business.

The New Guy Only Thinks He Learned From the Old Guy Who Only Thinks He Learned From The Dead Guy:

It may not be so in all companies, but sometimes employees and business managers operate like automatons, they repeat how they do things over and over again until it becomes ingrained, and as with any habit thinking isn't required. . And all too often CEOs and top management are complicit if not directly responsible.

If you are a business manager pull out your job description, if you're a CEO pull out your managers' job descriptions and check to see if it/they say anything about "Constant Improvement".

A business manager not focused on improvement becomes an administrator at best and a bureaucrat at worst.

Before improvement/change for the better can take place two thing must happen; first there must be an acceptance or acknowledgment that a business doesn't have to be sick in order to improve, there is always room for improvement.

Then there must be a commitment made as to who will do what when...and the efforts must be tracked and measured.

Change always generates resistance, expect it in others and in yourself. Tell the affected employees of the changes to be made and then ask why the changes won't work...take notes for this will become a "to do" list.

Keep changes small so that people can succeed, but once they mastered a change introduce the next small change...no stress no change.

And of course pay people for doing what you want done...like thinking and coming up with improvements.

An old axiom says that "People respect (do) what is inspected (measured) not what is
expected" .

Can you imagine the chaos that would result if traffic cops were pulled off the roads? In much the same way business managers need to be told that a primary function of their job is to think, to always be looking for ways to save a step, a minute or a penny...and then they must be measured.

Over the years I found that this method for organizing and documenting the knowledge needed to do things as right as possible the first time... worked with any business function.

The Five Organizational Ps

Purpose: Every business function must have a clearly stated purpose which answers the question, "Why incur the costs that go with the function?"

Policies: Goal driven guidelines for each major component within the function.

Process: The step by step method for achieving the goals established by the policies.

People Requirements: The right people for the job based on the process.

Process Monitoring and Performance Measurements: Monitoring key steps in the process to ensure quality and measuring against the goals established by the policies.

If the established goals are not achieved either the process is wrong or you have the wrong guy in the job.

Financial profit is necessary for any business to stay in business and the best way to improve on profit is to do things as right as possible the first time. We will never achieve perfection because things keep changing and that's why Policies and Procedures are never done and we need to place a cover sheet on them that says "UNDER CONSTRUCTION".

One Size Does Not Fit All

Every person on the planet sees things differently, His Holiness, The Dalai Lama says that there are six and a half billion of us and six and a half billion versions of reality and if you're married you know what the Dalai Lama is talking about...it's the same with companies. Businesses are a collection of many different people, none of whom define the business but collectively they make up the business. And what works at one company may not work at another... every company and it's people are unique . The process for best business practices must be based on each company's understanding of what is... is.

In Closing

It was time to rotate the tires on the pick-up and for an oil change and lube, I knew it was time because of the sticker on the corner of the windshield. I've learned it's best to make an appointment rather than just show up at the tire place and have to wait if they're busy...guess what? ...no phone number on the sticker. This is a national tire chain and yet I had to wait and remember to look up their phone number when I got home. If I had been able to call them from the pick-up at the time I'd noticed the sticker I'd might have been able to get in sooner, and at my age they were lucky I didn't space it out altogether. I mentioned all this to the asst. manager when I was checking in and he got it at once...he pulled out a note pad and wrote it all down saying as he did so ,"This is one for corporate, we all use the same stickers." Good for him...now lets see if Big O corporate gets it.

When people are told that on-going improvements are desired and that they will be measured on coming up with them, they become different people.

They find that they are capable of thinking outside the established box and that it gives far more meaning to their work lives, than just a paycheck.

And it drives down the cost of doing business for everyone in the supply chain.

Abe WalkingBear Sanchez is an International Speaker / Trainer / Consultant on the subject of cash flow / sales enhancement and business knowledge organization and use. Founder and President of www.armg-usa.com, WalkingBear has authored hundreds of business articles, has worked with numerous companies in a wide range of industries since 1982 and has spoken at many venues including the Shakespeare Globe Theater in London.

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YoungGoGetter: Simply put, buying a business presents a completely different opportunity to owning a business than the traditional “start from scratch” strategy that a lot of us are familiar with. Before jumping in, you get the chance to see how well the business is running before you make a decision. If its something that has passed your screening process and it’s something you are considering, chances are the business is structured well already. Of course, this means that there’s less risk involved and maintaining the business shouldn’t be an insurmountable task, theoretically speaking. As well, with a stable business, most likely a steady positive cash flow will accompany it. When it comes to market share, starting a business creates more competition, whereas acquiring a business maintains the existing market share. As you can see, the benefits of buying a business are clear, but before you head to the bank or go running around frantically searching for businesses, there are a few other things to consider.

Park Place vs. Baltic Ave…

The first thing you have to understand that it’s going to cost you a lot more to buy and existing business than to start your own. Built in to the cost of a business is the sweat equity, the time and effort that the original owner put into the business to start it and get it off the ground. It was them that took the risk for you and spent countless hours developing a foundation and you can expect to be paying for every bit of it. Essentially you’re paying a premium price for someone else to create a business. They’ve already created a brand name for themselves and you’re not just buying the business, you’re buying the brand name too.

Even Matlock Can’t Get You Out of This One…

You can call him up to go over a company’s bookwork with a fine-tooth comb before purchasing it, however there are some things that the books just can’t tell you. A bad corporate reputation or poor customer perception can be something that comes along with the business you bought, and that’s very tough to foresee. You are taking over the business as it is. You can’t expect to know everything about the business without being at the helm of it for some time. Old equipment, operating systems or buildings can end up costing you a lot of money to update, but outdated systems can be a great negotiating tool to leverage down the asking price if they can be uncovered before you make the purchase.

It’s a Little Better Than Working for Your Dad…

Your freedom is limited in the sense that there are current systems in place. For example, specific lease agreements may prevent you from altering any physical specifications of the building. As well, more ofthen than not, you’ll have to live with the location of the business as you bought it. Current customer processes are difficult to change too, especially if there is a lot of rapport with the existing client base and they are used to things being done a particular way. Even worse, if clients took advantage of the previous owner (not necessarily losing money, just not maximizing), it can be tough to retain them as you retrain them. On the other side of the table, you have your employees. You have to be careful not to decrease morale by making the first order of business a change in employee policy. By changing things to your requirements too fast, you can upset the delicate balance of a smoothly running machine.

Would You Miss Your Kid’s First Steps?

This may be more of an ego thing, and granted, this isn’t exactly the same thing as your child’s first steps here, but when you start a business from the ground up, there’s the sense of pride you just can’t get when you buy someone else’s business. The proverbial first steps of a business can contribute to the pride which translates into an attitude, a personality that can be manifested in the way the business is run. Many business owners treat their business like a child, even more so when they created it.

Now is the time that you stop and ask yourself, “Is it right for me?” Like I said, buying a business presents a unique opportunity with limited risk, but there are some snags to watch out for. You may pay a premium for a business you want, but with it comes the hidden items that you don’t. It’s pretty obvious that owning a business is a big deal and shouldn’t be taken lightly. This is definitely something where you need to get your ducks lined up. But, as long as you look at it from every angle a few times over, the decision shouldn’t be that hard. So…….is it right for you?

Shedding Some Light on Buying a Business [YoungGoGetter]

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Brockblake.com: Kent Thomas (CFO Solutions), put together an interesting article called “10 Tips for Recession-Proofing your Business.” Kent provides a much-needed out-sourced financial services for the small & growing business. He has been fantastic to work with and I highly recommend him. Here are the details of his recent article:

1. Diversify Customers. Evaluate your customer base and identify concentrations of customers in the same industry and / or geographic region. Also look at how much business you do with each customer (make a list of your top 10 or 20 customers with total sales in the past 12 to 24 months and calculate the percentage of your total sales that comes from each. Establish a strategy to expand your customer base and to watch the “concentration risks” carefully.

2. Cut costs. If three employees are doing the job of one, you may need to make job cuts. “When times are tough, it’s best to focus on core markets and spend money in those areas, not in areas that haven’t been more profitable,” says Lenhart, the national director of business restructuring at BDO Consulting in New York

3. Ratchet down inventory. When a recession hits, the last thing you’ll want to do is get stuck with shelves of needless inventory. Keep an eye on leading consumer indicators such as those offered by the National Retail Federation and the Conference Board. Also, establish inventory targets and make sure the sales and purchasing departments are talking.

4. Maintain prices. You may be tempted to slash prices to free up cash flow. That’s a mistake, says Bradley J. Sugars, a business coach in Las Vegas. Sure, you’ll sell products but you’ll also cut your profit margins and likely dilute your brand in the process. Plus, if customers decide to buy again from you in the future they may expect similar discounts.

5. Reserve discounts. “Don’t go into a discounting war,” says Sugars. Since you don’t want to dilute your brand’s value and you especially don’t want to start competing on price with discounters such as Wal-Mart Stores and Target.

6. Focus on service. While expanding your business into markets abroad may be avenues for growth, many small-business owners should focus on their existing customers and clients for a boost in revenue. With this in mind, Sugars suggests focusing on service. “It is one of the best ways to add value without costing money,” he says.

7. Invest in employees. When the going gets tough, the employees you have will be your productivity all-stars, says Lenhart. Make boosting productivity within reason, of course a focal point. For those that rise to the top, be sure to reward them accordingly. “You don’t want to lose your most productive people at this time,” he says.

8. Free up cash flow. While you’re attempting to cut costs and grow sales, “now is the time to call in favors,” says Howard Applebaum, chief lending officer of Sterling National Bank in New York. Be sure to free up your business’s cash flow by asking to have payments to suppliers extended.

9. Renegotiate contracts. If a contract, a lease or other obligation will soon be up for renewal, try to negotiate lower prices. At this point, you may be able to also make cuts, says Applebaum. If you don’t need 50,000 square feet of office space, consider paring down. “It is really a reality check that requires a tough look at your expenses,” he says.

10. Look to expand your business. If, on the other hand, you’re sitting pretty, Carmen Bianchi, director of San Diego State University’s Entrepreneurial Management Center, suggests giving the competition a gander. “Look for weaknesses and instability,” she says. If they’ve been having trouble, you may be in a good position to pick up their business at bargain-basement prices.

10 Tips for Recession-Proofing your Business [Brockblake.com]

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I am among the 61 percent of Americans who believe that the US economy is currently in a downward slope, heading towards a recession or already at the point. Consider the astronomical number of foreclosures, escalating real credit card debt, ever-increasing consumer pricing (with particular concern about skyrocketing gasoline pricing and its domino industry effect), lagging personal income, rising unemployment or underemployment rates … and its easy to agree with the pundits who proclaim that all is not well with our recessing economy.

Despite the unsettling news or perhaps because of it, thousands of merchants across our nation continue to blaze an entrepreneurial path, opening up businesses, cutting a swathe along every conceivable niche. Most of these new business owners will realize the necessity to accept credit cards, and consequently, need to establish merchant accounts. (Consumer credit card use naturally increases during difficult economic times and merchants must accommodate their customers preferred method of payment.)

Knowing the importance of obtaining credit card processing capability, merchants engage in an exercise of due diligence in an attempt to find the best merchant account to satisfy their needs. Here are some criteria to consider when weighing options in the midst of turbulent economic
times:

1) Associated credit card fees – This is an obvious consideration, particularly when business profit must be maximized. As comparisons are performed, all rates must be considered, particularly the discount percentage assessed to qualified, mid-qualified, and non-qualified transactions. Of course, other fees come into play, such as start up, monthly, and annual costs. By comparing apples to apples, merchants may reap the seeds of greater profit;

2) Monthly minimum expense – Many credit card companies charge a monthly minimum – a certain amount of processing a merchant must reach to cover the merchant account provider’s cost. For example, if the monthly minimum is $25 and the merchant has only attained a processing amount of $15 (calculated by taking the discount rate times the associated transaction dollar amount), the merchant would be responsible for an additional $10
that month. This can add up over time and take a bite out of crucial
profit. Many new businesses, particularly during slow economic cycles, experience financial hardship during the first year, and it need not be compounded with unnecessary credit card processing expenses;

3) Cancellation or termination fee – While some merchant account providers waive this cost, many assert that it is a valid charge due to the expenses incurred by the processor. But the cancellation / termination fee can run into hundreds or even surpass the $1,000 threshold. While business owners need to maintain a sense of confidence and optimism, the stark reality is that many businesses will fold … and with greater frequency in a depressed
economy. Other merchants may simply grow disenchanted with their present
merchant account provider, and look for a better solution, usually to cut
costs. As such, a cancellation / termination will only serve as a financial albatross to the merchant;

4) Chargeback expense, policies, and procedures – As the growing financial crunch bears its adverse effects to all, there is simply a greater likelihood that customers will initiate chargebacks, disputing a given charge. Merchant account providers typically assess a fee due to the ensuing investigation. Business owners should know what the fee is (the lower the better), and even more importantly, the merchant account provider’s chargeback policies and procedures. Some merchant account providers are very supportive in helping merchants navigate the process; others are very indifferent and may have policies that are not
merchant-friendly (e.g., a tendency to freeze accounts). It is important to find out your merchant account provider’s modus operandi with chargebacks; and finally, consider ...

5) Customer support – Regardless of your choice of provider, it is important for you to learn the facets of credit card processing. Agents must truly enlighten merchants and hasten the learning curve. After all, in difficult economic times, merchants cannot afford to waste time on trying to figure out or solve problems stemming from their merchant account. There must be a quick resolution so merchants can concentrate on their core competency. Any independent sales organization or agent must provide fast, reliable service, and be available for any problems that crop up.

Despite down markets, merchants can recession-proof their business, and one way is to choose the best merchant account using the aforementioned criteria.

Andy Lax has worked in the credit card processing industry for over five years and is now an Account Manager at IntelliCollect, a merchant account provider that enables business owners to accept credit cards and electronic checks.

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This article was provided by Dittman Incentive Marketing, a quality leader in the field of people performance improvement. Since 1976, Dittman has helped companies achieve critical corporate goals via original, one-of-a-kind corporate incentive award programs that inspire sales team motivation, customers to buy more, and others to do more.

Scientists agree that in most people one side of the brain dominates. The right half of the brain controls the creative, artistic characteristics and the left side controls the practical, reasoning functions. Bankers, mathematicians and physicians are directed by a dominant left side. Artists, writers and actors live by the right side of their brain.

Those who successfully create incentive travel programs must be able to call on unusual competencies from both sides, seemingly simultaneously — to call on their ability to be an artist, a poet, a dreamer at one moment and almost immediately transform themselves into a plotter, a planner, a schemer.

One half says, “How do I get people from point A to point B in the most organized, logical and efficient fashion?” The other half says, “How can I make it fun?”

What are the skills needed, the training to be drawn upon, to prepare the two sides of the mind for this “combat”? From the right side come abilities in English, history, foreign language, art and music. From the left come the necessary accounting, math, science, geography and business skills.

English and History
A good incentive travel proposal provides a romantic, moving description of the travel experience as the guests will live it. The promotional materials also transform a piece of geography (the trip destination) into a living, breathing entity. The materials that prepare the winners for the travel experience fuel their fantasy. So you need the poetic skills of a great romantic.

Yet our writer must also have the discipline of a journalist. The proposal must deal, in almost checklist fashion, with the elements that are included in the cost. The rules of the program must be written in clear, precise, direct English. And the trip preparation materials must be quickly and easily understood.

The clearly superior incentive travel program uses the customs, the culture, the history of the travel destination to bring its uniqueness to life.

To be in a position to make that destination the foundation of a lifelong memory for the guest requires, at the very least, a good sense of history; to do it well calls for a genuine, heartfelt interest and knowledge of history.

The best travel programs inform and educate as well as host and entertain. And the incentive travel professional educates while he or she entertains.

Foreign Language
Do not mistake the intention here. An incentive travel creator need not be fluent in multiple languages to be successful. But a person who takes on the role of operating travel programs abroad can be of maximum effectiveness if he or she has a strong working knowledge of at least one foreign language.

And, most importantly, the key to fluency in any foreign language is a sound structural knowledge of English. An understanding of the nuances within a language, and the relationships of different languages to one another, yields a deeper understanding of the differences among people.

Art and Music
Music is not all rock and roll. And Leroy Neiman is not the most acclaimed painter who ever lived. The majority of guests on an incentive program are at the point in their lives where they are searching for truth and beauty. Close your eyes and picture listening to Mozart or Strauss being played in Vienna. Now, keep them closed and picture yourself soaking up all the beauty of a Renoir or a Monet in the Louvre.

The artists and composers … the poets and sculptors and writers of the world have made a more lasting impression on our lives than all the generals and politicians and statesmen. And it is up to the incentive creator to use them … to bring them to life.

I’ve referred to only five subjects that call upon the right side of the mind; by extension, philosophy, sociology, psychology and anthropology are included, as well. In short, the liberally educated man or woman “for all seasons” is best equipped to create heart-moving, mind-filling, exceptional incentive programs.

Now, to the left side of the brain.

Accounting
Could there be two people as opposite in essential nature as the poet and the accountant? Yet they must co-exist in the mind of the incentive creator. Line item costs must be budgeted, reconciliations made, the cash flow needs of suppliers, corporate sponsor and incentive creator prioritized. Foreign currency fluctuations must be dealt with. International monetary transactions are a daily task. And most important, the program must be done within budget, with a fair profit for all.

Math
We speak here not of trigo-nometry or differential calculus, but rather, of the basic arithmetic and algebraic manipulations that put one in command of numbers and, in turn, in command of problem solving.

If you’ve constructed a per-person price on a program, part of which is arrived at by amortizing $25,000 in fixed costs over 375 projected guests, what is the new price if you only have 320 guests? What formula can you fix in your mind to tell what time and what day it is in Bangkok when it’s 2 p.m. on Tuesday in Indianapolis?

These are the kinds of questions you must be able to handle without too much time, effort and anguish.

Science
Here again, not advanced chemistry or nuclear physics is required, but rather, a working knowledge of basic physical science and the human machine.

What are the effects on the human body of a 15-hour plane ride across eight time zones? What do you do with your guests the first 48 hours in Hong Kong to help them adjust to their new daily schedule? What season is it in Buenos Aires when it’s summer in New York?

If you’re not curious about the answers, then incentive travel planning is not for you. If you plan a major party the first night in Hong Kong, or if you think you’ll find the warming sun of Argentina baking you to a golden brown in July (where it has reached as low as 28 degrees F.), you’re doomed to fail.

Geography
The need for this body of know-ledge is self-evident. The consummate incentive travel expert knows the world as well as most people know their living room and knows not only the topography, the major points of visual interest and the capital, but where the water is and whether it’s drinkable or swimmable. Enough said.

Business
I’ve left the most important element for last in the hope that it will linger the longest in the reader’s mind. The most common misconception about incentive travel — and the one that does the most damage — is that we are in the business of running “trips.” We are not.
We are in the business of helping corporate marketers reach their business objectives. And to do that, the incentive creator must first understand enough about his or his client’s business — its style, product, goals — to create a program that is a sound business proposition. To survive, the incentive creator must be a pragmatic business pro.

The Challenge
Incentive travel, as the Society of Incentive Travel Executives defines it, is “a modern manage-ment tool used to achieve extra-ordinary goals by awarding participants a travel award upon their attainment of their share of the uncommon goals.” It is a basic tenet of the free enterprise system that the greater the effort, the greater the reward. The key words in the SITE definition are “extraordinary” and “uncommon.” One doesn’t earn the extraordinary for doing the common.

Quality control people are expected to control product quality. Accountants are expected to keep the books properly. And salespeople are supposed to sell, to meet set quotas.

People get paid to perform these tasks to measured standards. How, then, do we help people to overachieve, to extend themselves well beyond usual standards? The answer lies in the human psyche. We work for money, of course, but there live in each of us two human drives that, combined, explain why incentive travel works.

The first is the need for applause, the need to feel appreciated by our employers and admired by our peers.The second motivator is the desire to travel, to see strange, new places. When you take your overachievers away to a distant place for the purpose of applauding them, you have married the dual needs for self-esteem and self-actualization … and have created the most powerful, inspirational force of all.

Your company can set goals for its people well above the norm of expected performance by saying to them, “Achieve your goal and we will take you away for the travel experience of a lifetime.” This motivator is usually directed at sales personnel, but is increasingly being applied to non-sales employees to motivate them to achieve quantifiable goals such as improved productivity, quality and cost control.

You’ll note that I didn’t say that the overachievers “win” a trip. They don’t “win” anything; they earn it, through their efforts. And it’s not a “trip” they earn, but a travel experience. After all, if you ask a salesperson to work smarter or harder, or both, you can’t reward the effort with a week in the Caribbean that they see advertised in the New York Times for $499. When I say, “an extraordinary travel experience,” I mean a program so extraordinary that participants couldn’t duplicate it, no matter how much money they had to spend.

This may be a tall order, but it is the reason why incentive travel has worked to move billions of dollars of products for thousands of corporations across the country. It’s the very reason that incentive travel challenges the mind as no other profession does.

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These days we are so overloaded with information that it's easy to lose sight of the basics of running a business, and you very quickly become overwhelmed and suffer from information overload! Just take a look at some of the ebooks, products, ecourses etc. you have stored on your PC - I bet they all relate to marketing your business, getting more clients, increasing your income etc. but I bet NONE of them tell you how to manage your business!

Building a successful long-term profitable business isn't about "marketing" your business, it's about "managing" your business - the marketing comes once you have your management systems in place.

You cannot begin to market your business if you can't find the information you need, don't know who you are marketing to, and don't know where you are in your business.

So, let's go back to basics and take a look at the 3 key office systems you need to "manage" your business before you can start to "market" your business.

Filing Management System

Creating and maintaining a filing system is the very foundation that your business is built on, so this is the very first system you need to put in place - an efficient and effective filing system.

With a proper filing system in place you will very quickly and easily be able to find the information you need, when you need it.

Contact Management System

After you've got your filing system all straightened out, you then need to set about organizing your contacts. This is another crucial area of managing your business. If set up correctly your contact management system allows you to:

* Keep a note of clients, potential clients, and colleagues contact information.

* Easily and effectively follow-up with a prospect.

* Locate critical client contact information quickly and easily.

* Build your business.

Financial Management System

The is the final key office management system you need to put in place for managing your business. Once you know where you are in your business financially, you will be able to much more effectively market your business.

Having up-to-date, critical, financial information available at your fingertips allows you to efficiently manage cashflow and be able to know straightaway if you can take advantage of opportunities that come your way.

So remember, go back to basics and first "manage" your business before you "market" your business.

Online Business Manager & Virtual Assistant, Tracey Lawton, supports professional speakers, coaches, and authors to operate an efficient, organized, and profitable business. Learn how to create an efficient and organized office in 7 EASY steps, and receive free how-to articles at http://www.OfficeOrganizationSuccess.com.

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Technology is a wonderful thing - it allows us to work virtually, from anywhere in the world, and makes our lives easier. However, it can also hinder us, and this is particularly true in the case of emails.

Every day we are bombarded with hundreds of emails, only a small percentage of which are necessary. Spam filters are great at filtering most of the unwanted emails but a small amount do get through, adding to the number we have to sift through!

We can spend hours each day checking, sorting, and reading our emails only to find we haven't the time left for actual work! Here are my top 5 tips for managing your emails and giving you back your much-needed time.

1. Emails aren't urgent! Don't feel you have to read and act upon your email the second it hits your inbox. You don't! It isn't urgent. If there was a real emergency then your client/colleague/friend would call you.

2. Are all those newsletters you subscribe to really necessary? Probably not! If this the case spend some time going through them and unsubscribing the ones you don't really want or read.

3. Does your email play distracting alerts, i.e. a sound? If so, disable it. This is a distraction and you could quite easily stop what you're working on to go and check your emails. It will then take you some time to get back on track again, not to mention the amount of time you've just lost stopping what you were doing, reading your emails, and actioning them.

4. Schedule set times to check your emails. Once or twice a day is enough, say first thing in the morning and again later in the day. If you subscribe to various industry groups save reading these emails until you take a break from your work - maybe at the end of the day when you're winding down. You can easily get sidetracked reading all the different topics and replying to them, all of which is taking you away from your paid work.

5. Utilize email filtering tools. Set up folders and filters so that your email gets sent to the appropriate folder as soon as it arrives. Don't know how to do this? Read my article Is Your Inbox Getting You Down? How to Avoid Inbox Overwhelm available on my website.

If you follow these 5 tips above, you will find you are spending less time worrying about and checking your emails, and more time on being productive! That has got to be better for your bottom line.

Online Business Manager & Virtual Assistant, Tracey Lawton, supports professional speakers, coaches, and authors to operate an efficient, organized, and profitable business. Learn how to create an efficient and organized office in 7 EASY steps, and receive free how-to articles at http://www.OfficeOrganizationSuccess.com.

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This article is contributed by Heather Johnson, a freelance business, finance and economics writer.

With a tax deadline looming over their heads, many self-employed Americans are scrambling to get their ducks in a row. After all, the last thing anyone wants is to be audited. Even muttering the word strikes fear into the hearts of most people.

Why should entrepreneurs be especially concerned about audits? It is because the government is more likely to examine the self-employed a little closer. This is because many people accept cash payments, avoiding those pesky W-2 forms. As you can imagine, not everyone complies with the honor system when it comes to claiming his or her income.

So, now you know that you're more likely to be audited than someone else who isn't self-employed. Mind you, that doesn't mean the IRS is waiting in the bushes and ready to pounce. Chances are, you will never be audited and if you are, it really isn't the end of the world.

That being said, there are a few precautions you can take that will work in your favor. Below are eight tips for making you the least likely candidate for an IRS audit:

1. Be Honest – Don't purposely fudge on your taxes, even if you know someone who gets away with it or if you've done it in the past. It's wrong, it's illegal and it's really not worth it if you get caught.

2. Save Every Document – This is the most important step in good accounting and you've heard it a million times. Should the IRS ever come knocking on your door, this will be your saving grace.

3. Hire A Professional Accountant – Just as many people don't save receipts like they should, not many people heed this advice. However, it really is best to hire an accountant to handle your taxes when you are self-employed. Your paperwork is more complicated than those who work for a company.

4. Avoid Math Errors – A miscalculation that is spotted by the IRS will alert them to your records. The goal here is to keep a low profile, so any discrepancies make you stick out like a sore thumb. Mind you, a miscalculation may just result in a friendly notice from the IRS and not a full-blown audit, so don't panic.

5. Don't Forget Your Signature – What could be more conspicuous than you failing to sign your return form? Even a minor mistake like that could make the government suspicious.

6. Don't Drastically Change Your Lifestyle – If you were to move from a palatial mansion to a single-wide trailer, this might ring some alarms when you file your taxes.

7. Don't Be Successful – Heh, this may be the best rule to break. Hopefully you are successful and will become even more so, but a drastic change in income will certainly make the IRS a bit curious about your situation.

8. Be Careful With Your Deductions – Don't go crazy with deductions, particularly if you aren't sure how they work. Also, forget about deducting anything you don't have a receipt for. As far as the IRS is concerned, you didn't buy it for that reason if you don't have a receipt.

Here's some encouraging news: as of the year 2003, only 1% of Americans filing tax returns were audited. So, that leaves a 99% chance you will never have to face those scary taxmen. Also, don't assume you're going to the poor house or the big house if they do choose to audit you. As long as you are as honest and as thorough as possible, the IRS won't send you up the river.

Heather Johnson is a freelance business, finance and economics writer, as well as a regular contributor at Business Credit Cards, a site for best business credit cards and best business credit card offers. Heather welcomes comments and freelancing job inquiries at her email address heatherjohnson2323@gmail.com.

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This article is contributed by Sam Carpenter, author of the new book, 'Work the System: The Simple Mechanics of Working Less and Making More'.

Sam Carpenter never really understood the old adage, “work smarter, not harder.” Now, the multi-million dollar business owner lives by it.

Eight years ago, Sam was working ridiculously long hours for meager pay, crumbling under stress, and had zero time for himself or his family. The president and CEO of Centratel, a struggling telephone answering service business, Sam might as well have been working a per-hour job. For 15 years, he put in 80- to 100-hour workweeks, simply trying to keep his business afloat. His body was a wreck from the stress, and his doctor, convinced he was depressed, prescribed him Prozac and then Ritalin. On top of all this, he was a single parent of two children for this entire decade and a half.

Five days before he was going to miss a payroll for the first time and ultimately lose his business, Sam had a breakthrough epiphany. He realized that his life and business problems did not require “holistic” solutions. He saw that the primary systems in his life and business are made up of linear “sub-systems” that can be isolated and then perfected one at a time. By perfecting sub-systems, the primary systems would, in turn, function flawlessly. So, at once, he grabbed hold of the reins on his business, health, and relationships. He extracted and optimized each sub-system, then reinserted each back into the mix. Improvement was dramatic on all fronts.

Now, the author of Work the System: The Simple Mechanics of Working Less and Making More, Sam works two hours a week, runs a multi-million dollar telecommunications company once on the brink of folding, and makes more in a month than he used to make in a year. He is of robust health – climbing, cycling and skiing again. He owns a second home and travels, and recently remarried. On top of that, he also founded and operates an international non-profit organization to aid third world schoolchildren, and is in the process of launching a major internet startup site with his wife, Linda.

Follow Sam’s six steps to “working less and making more,” and watch your own business or corporate management position become more efficient, your workweek lessen, and your income skyrocket. Also, watch your personal life become more efficient and rewarding:

1. Change your fundamental perspective of the mechanics of the world. Take a position “outside and slightly above” your job and your life. See that everything is composed of linear systems and that these systems can be improved, one-by-one. Understand that by perfecting a primary system’s sub-systems, the primary system will in turn be perfected.

2. Know there is a universal propensity for order and efficiency: 99.9% of everything works just fine. Life wants things to work out; you just have to “climb on board.” There’s probably not much that requires repair.

3. Stop playing Whac-a-Mole. End the fire-killing. Instead of repairing problems as they arise, dig down deep, identify the inefficiencies, fix the dysfunctional systems that cause them, and prevent the problems from re-occurring. Climb down into the mole-holes and eliminate those critters altogether.

4. Create simple documentation. It has to happen. Boring, but true: the existence of documented protocols is the single greatest difference between large successful businesses and small struggling businesses. Create a strategic objective, operating principles, and working procedures for your job or your business. It won’t take long and the return will be a thousand-fold.

5. Make sure you’re in a position of advancement. If you look upward and there’s no rung on the ladder for you to reach, consider switching jobs. Or, find a small business that’s struggling, buy it, and fix it. To attain freedom, you must be in a position where upward mobility and hands-on management are possible.

6. Hire people who “get it.” You must surround yourself with people who agree with your philosophy and methodology. If your employees aren’t on the same page, don’t expect to get the results you want.

Sam Carpenter, author and speaker, is president and CEO of Centratel, an elite quality telephone answering service, and author of the new book, Work the System: The Simple Mechanics of Working Less and Making More. Success in life, business, and relationships can be yours, too. Sam's approach is not mystical or esoteric; it’s simple, mechanical, and attainable. Visit http://www.workthesystem.com to purchase your copy of Work the System.

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Business Managers not focused on improvement become administrators at best and bureaucrats at worst.

We tend to think of Sales as being the only competitive area of business, but that’s only the beginning; competition continues beyond Sales through the entire business process.

Improvement Equals Profit Enhancement

There are 4 basic ways to improve the bottom line:

1. Cook the books.

Long before the guys at Enron there was another Texan who bamboozled for profit. Billie Sol Estes made the cover of Time Magazine in the early 1960s as the "Texas Wiz Kid". An inquisitive child, Billie Sol grew to be an inquisitive man; he figured out that liquid fertilizer was lighter than water and was worth a whole lot more. Huge storage tanks filled with water, except for the top 2 or 3 inches of liquid fertilizer, provided the security for loan after loan. He also once borrowed money on his neighbor's cattle.

Billie Sol built a financial empire on one shady deal after another. He had all the politicians in his pocket, including LBJ. There’s a down side to "cooking the books", you may end up with a room mate named Burno who insists you wear a little apron. . . Don’t do it!

2. Raise Prices.

An increase in prices should increase profitability; unless you end up being noncompetitive and lose customers. Raising prices works best when you’re a sole source provider or when you have more business than you can handle. Remember the 90s?

Better still is raising prices when the quality of the product / service and business processes is higher / better than anyone elses. It’s the customers’ total cost of doing business, not price that keeps them buying. "Buying cheap to save money can be like stopping a clock to save time."

3. Sell More.

If you sell more and control the costs of those sales you’ll make more money. The most profitable sales are most often the repeat sales to the same customers. Customer retention and repeat sales are tied to more than price.

4. Decrease Costs.

Any reduction in cost of doing business without loss of income will have a dramatic impact on profitability. Improved productivity rules.

Ronald Coase and Friction in Business

An English economist, Coase wrote that there is friction or costs involved with business entities. There’s the friction/cost of "searching" for customers and suppliers. There’s the "coordination friction/cost" of on-going business processes. The last and most expensive friction/cost, is that of "failure", of something going wrong and having to be redone. The CEO of a chain of white table linen restaurants estimated that for every meal sent back, 32 new meals had to be sold to make up the loss.

Smart customers understand about the "total cost" of doing business. Your competitor’s prices may be lower, the quality of their product/service may be equal to yours; but if their business processes are screwy and drive up the customer’s cost. . . you have no competitors. You don't have to be twice as good as the next guy, be just a little better and you stand heads and shoulders above competitors.

Fewer Doing More

Unemployment is up, and so is productivity. Those companies that constantly work on improving the quality of their product/services and of their business processes will be the survivors. The future holds more of the same.

Document Knowledge / Expectations

All human endeavor is predicated on knowledge, on what you know. Business knowledge is more than facts or data; it’s the "orderly collection of information needed to get things done."

The verbal communication of policies (goal driven guidelines) and procedures (steps needed to achieve goals) expands on training time and creates errors. Word of mouth business operations are like a sailor’s promises while on shore leave, they’re not worth the paper they’re not written on.

Every manager’s job description should start with a commitment to improvement; "Focus on improvement, on how things can be done better for the same costs or less." If people aren’t told in black and white what’s expected of them, they get busy and forget.

Track the source of screw ups and reward customers / employees / vendors who tell you of a failing, of an opportunity for improvement.

Write down the goal(s) of each business function and then ask the experts, the employees, how the goal(s) can best be reached. Write down the steps necessary and ask new employees for new knowledge; how they’d do things differently.

In Closing

Don’t worry about industry averages when gauging the KPIs for different business areas; it’s much more important to focus on improvement, on how things can be done better. It takes a lot less effort to keep an old customer satisfied than to get a new customer interested.

And remember, "the bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of cheap price is forgotten."

Abe WalkingBear Sanchez is an International Speaker / Trainer / Consultant on the subject of cash flow / sales enhancement and business knowledge organization and use. Founder and President of www.armg-usa.com, WalkingBear has authored hundreds of business articles, has worked with numerous companies in a wide range of industries since 1982 and has spoken at many venues including the Shakespeare Globe Theater in London.

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Every business operates on knowledge and yet many companies never organize and document that knowledge into useable P&P.

As a result of this failure to organize and document the knowledge it takes to operate a business, many companies operate on a word of mouth basis.

"The new guy learns from the old guy who learned from the dead guy."
Scott Stratman

Business Friction/Costs

Ronald Coase, of "Coase's Law", says that there is friction involved with being in business. The original friction or cost is that that goes with finding customers for a company's products/services, and of finding vendors/suppliers who can take care of the company's needs.

Beyond "acquisition" costs there's the ongoing friction of doing business; transactional costs.

The most expensive cost/friction is that of failure. Regardless of the "industry", the most expensive work done in a business is the "re-do".

As Right as Possible, the First Time

Some companies just don't seem to understand or care that when something goes wrong it drives up their cost of doing business, and it also drives up "cost of doing business" for their customers and vendors. Its like they really think that they don't have time to do things right the first time. Baloney.

A major source of errors, omissions, miscommunications and screw ups is the lack of written P&P, of operating on a "word of mouth basis". The cost? A $30 mistake can take $300 in time and effort to correct, and if that company is doing a 5% PTP (pre tax profit) it takes ( 20X$300) $6000 in sales to cover the cost of failure. And if a customer is involved there's no way of knowing the impact/cost of the mistake on/to that customer. And there's no way of knowing who that customer might have told about the failure. What's the cost in lost business from "negative word of mouth advertising"?

" The true cost of errors is unknown and unknowable." Edwards Deming

The 5 Organizational Ps

Every company needs a plan, a strategy that drives it's actions. The plan may be to increase market share, to reduce costs, retain existing customers, provide new products/services to old customers or it may be to have the "lowest price, always". Wait a minute that plan is already taken.

Based on the "plan", every business function must have a "Purpose" that compliments the "plan" and which answers the question, "Why incur the costs that go with this business function?". For example, distributors incur the costs of having a warehouse so that they can meet or exceed customer expectations, so that they have an acceptable "fill rate". A distributor doesn't have to have 100% of what customers want 100% of the time, but if they don't have an acceptable "fill rate" the customers will go elsewhere. Purpose is the first of the 5 Ps.

Once the "Purpose" is established`, every business function can be broken down into it's major components. In our warehouse example those major components might be "receiving", "shipping", "truck maintenance " and "inventory control". The goal for each major component is the basis for "policies', for goal driven guidelines. Policies are the second of the 5Ps.

There are 6B people on the world and there are 6B versions of reality. The third of the 5Ps is "Procedures", and one size does not fit all. Purpose and Policies are determined by managers who, if they're smart, let the experts (the guys doing the job) tell them how the goals established will be accomplished.

The fourth of the 5 Ps is "People". Based on the steps needed to achieve established goals hire the right people for the job.

The fifth and most important of the 5Ps is "Process Monitoring/Performance Measurements". The key steps in the "procedures" need to be monitored to ensure things aren't falling through cracks, that the process is on track.

In life and in business things will happen for which we haven't planned. In 1969 I was living in Denver and I was going to drive out to S.F.. My plan was simple enough, I'd drive north to Cheyenne, Wyo. and turn left. Outside of Boulder, Colorado there was a "hippie" and his girlfriend holding up a sign saying "SF", I picked them up. They had a large bag of soy nuts and of this other stuff which they shared; we missed our turn. Montana was nice and we eventually got to S.F.. It was a trip.

Performance must be measured against goals. If the goals are well thought out and achievable but are not being met its one of two things; either the procedures are wrong or you have the wrong people for the job.

"Employees respect what managers inspect , not what they expect." Don Rice Tex A&M

It doesn't matter what you ask for, its what you monitor and measure for that tells employees what you really want from them.

BestBizWays; Powerful in Effect with Little Waste of Effort

Document the knowledge needed to run a business and you'll do a better job of hiring the right people, you'll reduce training time with new employees, errors will be minimized, customer service levels will rise and the bottom line will go up.

Organize and document the knowledge needed to operate a company and you increase it's value by having a "cookbook".

In Closing
Harvest new knowledge by asking new employees to tell you how things can be done better. Do this in the first two weeks on the job, before a new employee starts thinking like everyone else. P&P are never done, things are always changing. P&P should have a cover sheet that says "Under Construction". The best information in the world is worthless until you put it to work. Its up to you.

The 5 Organizational Ps

Purpose: Every business function must have a clearly stated purpose which compliments the "Plan" and answers the question, "Why incur the cost ?".

Policies: Goal driven guidelines for each of the major components within the function.

Procedures: The steps needed to be taken in order to accomplish established goals.

People Requirements: Based on the procedures hire the right people for the job.

Process Monitoring/Performance Measurements: Track key steps in the process and measure against the goals.

Abe WalkingBear Sanchez is an International Speaker / Trainer / Consultant on the subject of cash flow / sales enhancement and business knowledge organization and use. Founder and President of www.armg-usa.com, WalkingBear has authored hundreds of business articles, has worked with numerous companies in a wide range of industries since 1982 and has spoken at many venues including the Shakespeare Globe Theater in London.

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Scientists believe that about 150,000 years ago a huge volcanic eruption created a cloud of ash that covered most of the Earth for 6 years. Not all sunlight was blocked but enough so that most plants and animals died.

Those life forms that survived "the long winter" were the smart and the strong. Those life forms that perished were the weak and those who couldn't adapt to the change. It's kind of that way in business.

We are in an economic downturn and a culling of the herd is taking place.

Never Time Enough

Errors, glitches, screw ups, misunderstandings, omissions, the left hand not knowing that the right hand exists much less knowing what it's doing; all drive up the total cost of doing business. Vendors, sellers and customers all pay for inefficiency.

Too often the unofficial motto of some companies seems to be "we never have time to do things right, the first time." A "redo" is the most expensive and unprofitable work that a business does. Some businesses make money in spite of themselves.

By documenting the knowledge it takes to get things done right the first time, their best biz ways, companies can improve their efficiency and better prepare themselves to deal with reduced sales, slow cash flow, thinner margins and major business disruptions. Moving from "word of mouth" operations to written policies and procedures promotes efficiency of action.

The Closet Report and Dead Customers

You've most probably have encountered inefficiencies that have left you scratching your head and wondering what the heck is going on.

Steve Epner of BSW Consulting, Inc. tells a story about a report that clearly illustrates wasted time and effort. It seems that a woman in a company spent the last 2 hours of each day compiling some data into a report. She'd leave it on the corner of her desk and the next morning it would be gone.

When asked what the report was for and who it went to, she didn't know. The woman had been trained by her predecessor to do the report but was never told why or to whom it went.

It turned out that about 3 years before the CEO had asked that the report be generated and left for him to pick up at the end of each day. After a while he decided he didn't need it and he quit picking it up, but forgot to tell the preparer.

As the reports piled up the janitor took note that they were unsightly and got in the way of his cleaning. He started moving the report to a nice safe out of the way closet. He referred to it as the "closet report." When the stack in the closet got too high, he'd toss them out and start a new stack.

My friend Russ Case use to tell a true real story about a hospital room in England where the patients unexpectedly kept dying. All the equipment was checked and double checked, the air was tested, the water and food were checked out and found to be safe. The deaths continued and the toll hit 10 before the cause was found. Again, it was the janitor.

It seems that this room has a shortage of electrical outlets and when the clean up crew came in they'd unplug the life support equipment so that they could plug in their cleaning equipment. To protect their hearing the cleaning guys wore ear muffs and couldn't hear the patients' death struggles.

Profit and Survival Enhancement

The former head of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, issued a warning in March 2007 that the world's largest economy could be heading for recession.

U.S. consumers have helped keep the world economy afloat in recent years by borrowing against the rising value of their houses to finance spending. Now, hit by higher gasoline/energy/transportation prices, a crumbling housing market and an increase in worldwide demand for more credit..the economy has soured.

During an economic downturn the demand for goods and services drop off and a number of businesses, most especially those already struggling, fail.

Just in case Greenspan is right, here are some thoughts on how businesses can position themselves to better survive an economic downturn.

Companies run on money, fail to pay the phone company, the IRS, the power company, employees and suppliers and you are out of business. So now, before you have the need is the time to secure long term financing. Don't delay, sit down now with your lender and work out a line of credit that you can draw on as needed. The time to borrow is when you don't need it because when you do need it you may find you can't get it.

If you already don't know, you need to identify and embrace your core customers. Think of the 80/20 rule. Do 20% of your customers make up 80% of your business, if so you best know those customers, their needs and desires and the names of their kids.

You also need to know how any downturn in business would effect them, they may be your buddies now but if they fail you don't want them taking you down with them. Run credit reports on core customers on a regular basis to help you remain confident of their ability to pay...and to possibly increase their credit line, if they need and can handle an increase.

Invest now in finding new customers.

Don't allow your salespeople to become order takers who service existing customers and forget how to sell. The sharpest tool becomes dull from misuse or nonuse.

Putting all your eggs in one or a few baskets may be efficient and profitable during good times but can come back to haunt you during an economic downturn.

Even during good times it's important that your people be under a little stress so that they don't become lazy or indifferent toward their work. And hearing that some guy got the sack for not showing up or failing to work hard keeps the other employees on their toes.

Weed out weak employees and cross train the strong including senior managers. This is always a good idea but becomes critical when business slows.

Combine Overlapping Business Functions

In theory customer service is the customers' champion, the guys who care and who make things right. However, in practice and most especially in regard to consumer customer service, customer and service is an oxymoron. It's as if the "mad hatter" was in charge. Mumbo jumbo and then more mumbo. B2B customer service tends to be better because of competition for the same limited customer base and the larger sums of money involved.

In the course of dealing with why customers have not paid according to terms, the credit area deals with many different segments of the business chain, both internally as well as outside the company. Credit is kind of like being the guys with shovels following the parade.

Consider combining customer service with credit for improved efficiencies and communications.

Abe WalkingBear Sanchez is an International Speaker / Trainer / Consultant on the subject of cash flow / sales enhancement and business knowledge organization and use. Founder and President of www.armg-usa.com, WalkingBear has authored hundreds of business articles, has worked with numerous companies in a wide range of industries since 1982 and has spoken at many venues including the Shakespeare Globe Theater in London.

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Businesses want the different departments within their organization to cooperate, to compliment each other's efforts. No business function is an island onto itself and when any business function's purpose is misunderstood it adversely effects the entire operation. Cooperation creates synergy and improved profitability. Credit and past due A/R management is often a missing link in the profit chain.

Credit and Sales

The job of Sales is to turn prospects into profitable customers. Good Sales People ask questions to determine a prospective customer's need or desire. They then make a presentation on how their product/service will meet or exceed the need. If a customer then wishes to buy the method of payment must be determined. Should the customer want to pay at some later date, i.e. via credit terms the profit chain starts to fray.

Sales people are trained and paid to sell, Credit people are not!

It's not that Credit people fail to understand that without sales there is no business; but it's how the Credit function's performance is measured that creates conflict. Management can talk about the importance of credit approval to sales until they're blue in the face; but if they then turn around and measure DSO (days sales outstanding) and % bad debt, the message sent is that the number one job of the credit area is "risk management."

"Employees respect what management inspects and not what it expects" - Dr. Don Rice Texas A&M

If DSO and % bad debt are stressed, the results will be a harsher qualifying of prospects and a lower approval rate, and the placing of more past due customers on credit hold. A better and more profitable relationship between the Credit and Sales areas must be built on performance measurements that encourage finding ways to say yes to profitable sales, and that focus on keeping customers current and buying.

The Credit area can play a constructive role in supporting the Customer Service, Operations,
Accounting/Finance and Marketing functions, but its highest calling is to new and repeat sales.

Credit and Customer Service

Helping customers so as to retain their goodwill and continuing business is the job of every business function that has contact with customers.

In many companies the largest percentage of past due customers haven't paid because of unidentified and unresolved problems. The problem may be with the customer, or with the vendor, or the result of the actions of a 3rd party. The early identification and resolution of systems problems by the credit area will raise both customer service and customer retention levels.

"Anything that can go wrong will go wrong" - Murphy's Law "Murphy was an optimist" - WalkingBear

Credit and Operations

Seamless and smooth running business processes is a worthy goal. In the course of fixing things that have gone wrong, so that past due customers pay, the Credit function will uncover "areas of opportunity for improvement" throughout the entire business chain.

The Credit area can and should play an important role in constantly improving on the quality of a company's business processes. Quality is a must and constant improvement of a business' processes is like earning compound interest.

"A business manager not focused on improvement becomes an administrator at best and a bureaucrat at worst." - WalkingBear

Credit and Accounting/Finance

Safeguarding the assets of a company and ensuring sufficient liquidity are major roles of the accounting and finance area of business. In many companies the A/R is one of if not the largest assets and next to cash on hand A/R is the most liquid asset. The Credit area's role in creating and managing the A/R places it in an ideal position to ensure positive cashflow, quality receivables and the early identification and control of bad debt losses.

A key player in a company's financial well being, the credit area compliments the efforts of the accounting and finance area.

Credit and Marketing

Marketing is about more than getting prospects to call, it's also about communicating with customers so as to influence them in a positive way. A credit function not attuned to a company's marketing mix, the interrelated and interdependent activities in which the company engages in to meet is objectives, will cause the business to suffer.

Credit's central role and its need and ability to interface with prospects, customers, sales, accounting and finance, vendors, operations etc. place it in a prime position to further and to monitor a company's marketing efforts.

In Closing

I really enjoyed being a Corporate Credit Manager; it was like being a spider in the middle of a web. I had tentacles that reached everywhere. Once our CEO and the rest of the management team came to understand the true potential of the credit area; of its ability to increase sales (new and repeat), effect cashflow, identify areas of opportunity for improvement, and to support the marketing objectives…we changed the name of the department from credit and collections to the Customer/Sales Support Department. Along with the name change and new expectations came new performance measurements and a bonus based on improving profitability.

Abe WalkingBear Sanchez is an International Speaker / Trainer / Consultant on the subject of cash flow / sales enhancement and business knowledge organization and use. Founder and President of www.armg-usa.com, WalkingBear has authored hundreds of business articles, has worked with numerous companies in a wide range of industries since 1982 and has spoken at many venues including the Shakespeare Globe Theater in London.

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If you’re new to the world of merchant accounts, then you probably have a lot of questions. Here are 18 common questions and their answers – enough to get your business well on its way to accepting credit cards online or offline.

Q. What is a merchant account?

A. A merchant account, sometimes referred to as credit card processing or payment processing, lets businesses accept payments through credit cards, debit cards, and gift cards. To begin accepting credit cards, a business must work with a merchant account provider aligned with an acquiring bank to apply for a merchant account. That merchant account belongs solely to your business and you are responsible for it in every way. Your merchant account is subject to all the rules established by Visa and MasterCard (and possibly with American Express and Discover).

Q. What is a third-party provider?

A. Third-party providers, also known as third-party payment processors, are similar to merchant accounts in that they allow your business to accept credit card payments. However, you do not need to apply to a bank. Instead, you apply to the third-party provider and the bank never sees your application. It is often easier to get a merchant account through a third-party provider, because some banks view ecommerce businesses as high-risk ventures. The merchant account that you use is operated by the third-party-provider and shared among multiple businesses. Unlike establishing merchant accounts, opening an account with a third-party provider requires no application process or underwriting evaluation.

Q. What are the fundamental differences between a merchant account and third party provider?

A. To obtain a merchant account, your business must apply directly to the bank. Applying through a third-party provider omits the need to work directly with the bank. As stated above, it may be easier to apply through the third-party provider because banks view many ecommerce businesses, especially new ones, as high-risk ventures. However, when you work with a third-party provider, your business must follow all of that provider’s rules and pay its fees. In contrast, if your business has its own merchant account, it is directly subject to the rules established by Visa and MasterCard (and possibly Amex and Discover, if you choose to accept those payments). Therefore, if your business is able to get its own merchant account directly from the bank, in most circumstances this is the preferred solution for accepting credit card payments.

For additional information, please click on: intel.web.cedant.com/cblog/index.php?/archives/2006/22.html

Q. What kind of costs do merchant accounts carry?

A. Costs associated with merchant accounts can be grouped into two categories: setup costs and ongoing costs. Setup fees include the fee for the initial application, the setup/installation fee, the costs of necessary hardware and software, and, on rare occasions, a security deposit or a minimum reserve amount that must be maintained in the account. Ongoing fees include the discount rate and per-transaction fee, daily batch fee, authorization/verification charges, voice/touch tone authorization fees, and chargeback fees. Additional ongoing costs may include annual renewal fees, fraud protection program fees, monthly gateway fees, monthly statement fees, and monthly minimum fees. The actual types and amounts of costs vary among merchant accounts, so be sure to request a complete list of all fees before signing up for any particular merchant account. Our free ebook defines all the relevant fees associated with a merchant account.

Download at http://www.intelli-collect.com/accept_creditcards.pdf

A. The fees described above are applicable only for Visa and MasterCard. For American Express and Discover, the merchant account provider controls only the transaction rates. All other rates are controlled by those companies themselves. Amex offers two different pricing plans, depending on your charge volume. Discover, on the other hand, has a percentage-processing fee that varies by organization, but is usually between 2.50% and 3.25%. Also, there is no sign-up fee for Discover.

Q. How can I process American Express and/or Discover credit cards?

A. If you wish to accept another type of credit card, simply notify your merchant account provider. In most cases, the provider can apply to Amex, Discover, and other companies on your behalf.

Q. What options do I have for accepting credit cards?

A. You can accept credit cards in many different ways. If you have a retail storefront, you can accept credit cards on site with a physical terminal, or you can use a virtual terminal to enter customers’ credit card information via the Web. A service known as Dial Pay allows you to call a number and enter customers’ credit card information through your telephone keypad. You can also accept credit card payments through mobile or wireless devices, or through your company’s website.

Q. What do I need in order to accept credit cards online?

A. You will need four things to accept credit cards online: an online shopping cart, a payment gateway service, a credit card processor and an authorized Internet merchant account. The online shopping cart allows customers to make their purchase selections and then check out, providing their credit card information for payment. The online shopping cart sends the information to a payment gateway service (a secure certificate must be employed), which acts as an intermediary mechanism between your website’s shopping cart and the banking networks. Once the customer’s card-issuing bank verifies adequate funds and reports this information to the merchant account provider’s acquiring bank, a notice of approval is sent back to the payment gateway system which, in turn, sends the notice to the shopping cart for display to the customer. The credit card processor then deposits the funds (minus any associated fees) into the merchant’s bank account. The final piece, the Internet merchant account, is available to the merchant when the credit card processing company approves his/her application and authorizes the merchant to accept credit cards.

Q. How can I reduce online credit card fraud?

A. The key to reducing online credit card fraud is to communicate with your customers and be sure to get their authorization for all transactions in writing, whether via mail or email. You should also always verify the 3- or 4-digit security code (also known as CVV2) on the back of the credit card. (On American Express cards, the code is located on the front.) Because it is not encoded in the card’s magnetic strip, it is a reliable way to verify that the purchaser has the credit card in his or her physical possession during an online or telephone transaction. An Address Verification System (AVS) check should also be employed, comparing the customer’s billing address with the address indicated on the magnetic strip of the credit card. If there is an AVS mismatch, the transaction may be interpreted as a higher risk.

Q. How can I accept credit cards if I don’t have a website?

A. If your business doesn’t have a website, you’ll need to use a physical or virtual terminal to process credit card payments. A physical terminal lets you swipe the customer’s credit card on site. A virtual terminal lets you enter credit card information via the Internet. If you need to process only intermittent charges, Dial Pay (using the phone to input your customers’ credit card information) is probably your best option because of its associated lower monthly fees.

Q. What tiered rates do credit card processors apply to merchant accounts?

A. Traditional credit card processors use a three-tiered pricing scheme for their retail merchant programs: (1) the qualified rate, which is the best rate available; (2) the mid-qualified rate, for transactions that are keyed in; and (3) the non-qualified rate, for all other transactions. Some merchant account providers also discount their fees for check cards, creating another tier. Internet-only merchant accounts are usually limited to only two tiers: (1) the qualified rate, which is equivalent to a retailer’s mid-qualified rate; and (2) the non-qualified rate. Hence, online-only businesses generally pay more for their credit card transactions than do their bricks-and-mortar counterparts.

Q. What is Interchange Cost Pricing?

A. Interchange Cost Pricing is a pricing scheme for credit card processing that, for most businesses, is significantly less expensive than traditional pricing schemes. With Interchange Cost Pricing, each charge is made of (1) a mark-up of a certain rate category and (2) a set fee per transaction. The end result is often significantly less expensive than the traditional three-tier (qualified rate, mid-qualified rate, and non-qualified rate) pricing scheme. Ask your credit card processor to use a representative sample of your transactions to demonstrate the associated costs incurred under each pricing scheme

Q. Is it better to lease or buy a credit card terminal?

A. If you have the cash to make a large up-front payment and buy the credit card terminal upfront, this often makes the most sense. Over the life of the terminal, monthly lease payments add up to far more than the up-front purchasing cost. However, there are many other factors to consider. Ask your accountant whether you’ll be able to deduct the interest paid on monthly payments from your taxable income. And consider the implications of having the outstanding balance of the lease shown as a liability on your company’s financial statements. If having title to the credit card terminal is important to you, then you should buy it outright. Finally, consider the warranty service (and provider) that comes with having a purchased or leased credit card terminal. In truth, almost all businesses are probably better off buying a credit card terminal than leasing, but the decision depends on your specific circumstances.

Q. How difficult is the underwriting process?

A. The underwriting process is pretty straightforward. The underwriter will review your completed application, analyzing the nature of your business, your credit rating, and your history in credit card processing, if applicable. These and other factors are considered in deciding whether to approve your application. The decision is usually made within one or two business days.

Q. How does my business actually get the money?

A. After the credit card transaction has been approved, the amount of the transaction (minus any associated fees) is deposited directly into your bank account, usually within one or two business days of the sale. Some merchant account providers mandate that you open a bank account with their acquiring bank.

Q. Can credit card payments “bounce” as checks do?

A. One advantage of accepting credit card payments is that they cannot “bounce” as checks do if there aren’t enough funds available. However, the customer does have the right to challenge any charges on his or her credit card statement. If one of your transactions is challenged, the credit card company will contact your business, asking for proof of the transaction. If you aren’t able to provide adequate proof (within a designated timeframe), you will lose the transaction amount. Likewise, if the transaction was paid with a stolen credit card, you may be responsible for the transaction amount. Hence, it pays to do your due diligence and make sure that the purchaser is the person to whom the credit card was issued.

Q. Why should I accept credit cards?

A. Customers appreciate the convenience of paying for their purchases with credit cards, but there are many benefits for the business as well. First and foremost, your sales increase, primarily because customers are more likely to make impulse purchases when paying with credit cards. Some studies have shown that accepting credit cards can increase your sales by 1,000%. Also, accepting credit cards can improve your business’s cash flow, because you can receive payment within a few days, which is a definite advantage over waiting up to one week for a check to clear. Accepting major credit cards also increases your credibility from the customers’ perceptive.

Q. How do I decide which merchant account provider to use?

A. Of course, cost considerations must be weighed. Compare all merchant account fees, doing your best to contrast apples to apples, so to speak. Beware of any company that does not disclose important rates, such as their non-qualified fee or if any termination or cancellation fee is imposed. The inability to disclose all rates is tantamount to lying by omission. Many people forget to also consider the criterion of customer service. Reliability and responsiveness become important if problems arise in the future. If you are not receiving exemplary service before you have signed on with a merchant account provider, do not expect such service to improve after you do. Indeed, reward ethical, honest and responsive companies with your patronage.

Andy Lax has worked in the credit card processing industry for over five years and is now an Account Manager at IntelliCollect, a merchant account provider that enables business owners to accept credit cards and electronic checks.

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BusinessWeek: The most exciting business ideas fit on the back of an airplane napkin. I've mentioned Cranium co-founder Richard Tait in previous columns, but his story is worth repeating. He told me that the idea behind his popular board game hit him on a cross-country plane trip. He and his wife had spent the weekend with friends who "dusted them" at Scrabble. Yet Tait and his wife were unbeaten at Pictionary. What if a game existed, he thought, that would give everyone who played it the chance to excel in one category or another in front of family and friends. His vision was simple: to create a game where everyone shines. Tait's enthusiasm was so contagious that he attracted partners, employees, and investors like Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz. But the vision itself was strikingly simple. So simple, it could fit on the back of a napkin.

Consistently delivering a simple, memorable, and concise vision can make the difference between a successful business and a failing business. Not a mission statement, but a vision. I'm about to suggest an idea that might stir up heated debate in offices across America but will guarantee to free up thousands of hours that can be applied to improving the business. Lose the mission statement. That's right. Throw it out and throw out all of the meetings and e-mails that go along with it.

The Napkin Test [BusinessWeek]

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Entrepreneur: Cash flow problems can kill businesses that might otherwise survive. According to a U.S. Bank study, 82 percent of business failures are due to poor cash management. To prevent this from happening to your business, here are my 10 cash flow rules to remember.

1) Profits aren't cash; they're accounting. And accounting is a lot more creative than you think. You can't pay bills with profits. Actually profits can lull you to sleep. If you pay your bills and your customers don't, it's suddenly business hell. You can make profits without making any money.

2) Cash flow isn't intuitive. Don't try to do it in your head. Making the sales doesn't necessarily mean you have the money. Incurring the expense doesn't necessarily mean you paid for it already. Inventory is usually bought and paid for and then stored until it becomes cost of sales.

10 Critical Cash Flow Rules [Entrepreneur]

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BusinessPundit: I think one of the most difficult challenges in a startup is resource allocation tradeoff between working on your product and working on your distribution channels. Regardless of what we like to believe, it's rare for a product to be plucked from obscurity and amplified all over the blogosphere. Most "viral" success comes as a result of lots of hard PR work. If you are well funded, you can work on both. But if you are resource constrained like most startups, is it a better use of your time to build a better product or to focus on your distribution channels?

For most startups, you can use existing distribution channels once you have a good enough product. It takes some work to build those relationships depending on what kind of product you offer and what type of distribution you need, but in most cases, time is better spent on product development first and distribution second. But what if what you want to build is your own distribution channel?

Owning a distribution channel is a very powerful position. Particularly on the web, which is so search driven, it's very powerful if you can become a destination. But how do you do that? I think you use a "trojan horse" business model. It works like this:

1) Start with a quality product.

2) Leverage your distribution relationships to serve others

3) Leverage your increasing role in the distribution process to gain a larger share of the profits.

Startup Tradeoffs - Building Product vs. Building Distribution [BusinessPundit]

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Continued from Part 1 of the article More Profits From On-going Small Improvements by Abe WalkingBear Sanchez.

Twenty two years ago my younger son, Andres, was seven years old and one night he was doing some school homework. He was sitting at the dinner table with a sheet of paper and in the center he drew a box. Inside the box he wrote "A boy and his dogs". Then he drew a line from each corner of the box toward the edge of the paper and at the end of each line he wrote about something that had happened or been done, and by who. He then numbered these "actions" in sequence of events or priority. He then took a second sheet of paper and "A Boy and His Dogs" became the title and the "actions" became paragraphs...he was organizing and writing a story. A couple of weeks later while working with a distribution company on their Credit and A/R Management, the CEO asked if I could help organize and improve on how things were done in the warehouse...not knowing anything about warehouse operations I said "sure".

I thought the best place to start learning about the warehouse and about areas of opportunity for improvement was to ask the experts, the warehouse guys. Not having a flip chart or white board available we broke down a box and put it up on a warehouse wall. I then drew a box in the center of the box and I drew lines from the center box toward the edges of the flattened box...and then we called in the experts.

"Every business function must have a clearly stated purpose that addresses the costs associated with the carrying out of that business function.", I said to warehouse experts. They then led me through the costs involved with the warehouse function: inventory, heating/cooling, buildings, their paychecks, taxes, equipment and shrinkage/obsolescence. "So why incur the costs?, I asked. And of course one guy answered ,"To make a profit.". "What's the best way to "earn" a profit?", I asked. We finally came down to "meeting or exceeding customer expectations" as being the best way to earn a profit and for the warehouse function that meant having "an acceptable on time fill rate". In the box at the center of the flatten box I wrote "On-time Fill Rate".

The next step in organizing the "warehouse story" was to break it into "actions" or major components. We came up with receiving, shipping, truck maintenance, and inventory control, in sequence of events. The last thing we accomplished that day was to establish a goal for each of the major components: receiving...take in right and put up right, shipping...take down right and send out right, truck maintenance ...get what suppose to be where it's suppose to be when it's suppose to be, and inventory control...know what you need, what you have and where it's at. In a follow up session we establish how the goals would be accomplished...the steps needed to be taken in order to achieve the goals, and we also established who would do the work. The management team and I were then able to establish "Performance Measures" based on the ''goals."

Over the years I found that this method for organizing and documenting the knowledge needed to do things as right as possible the first time worked with any business function.

The Five Organizational Ps

Purpose: Every business function must have a clearly stated purpose which answers the question, "Why incur the costs that go with the function?"

Policies: Goal driven guidelines for each major component within the function.

Process: The step by step method for achieving the goals established by the policies.

People Requirements: The right people for the job based on the process.

Process Monitoring and Performance Measurements: Monitoring key steps in the process to ensure quality and measuring against the goals established by the policies.

If the established goals are not achieved either the process is wrong or you have the wrong guy in the job.

Financial profit is necessary for any business to stay in business and the best way to improve on profit is to do things as right as possible the first time. We will never achieve perfection because things keep changing and that's why Policies and Procedures are never done and we need to place a cover sheet on them that says "UNDER CONSTRUCTION".

One Size Does Not Fit All

Every person on the planet sees things differently, His Holiness, The Dali Lama says that there are six and a half billion of us and six and a half billion versions of reality and if you're married
you know what the Dali Lama is talking about...it's the same with companies. Businesses are a collection of many different people, none of whom define the business but collectively they make up the business. And what works at one company may not work at another... every company and it's people are unique . The process for best business practices must be based on each company's understanding of what is... is.

In Closing

It was time to rotate the tires on the pick-up and for an oil change and lube, I knew it was time because of the sticker on the corner of the windshield. I've learned it's best to make an appointment rather than just show up at the tire place and have to wait if they're busy...guess what? ...no phone number on the sticker. This is a national tire chain and yet I had to wait and remember to look up their phone number when I got home. If I had been able to call them from the pick-up at the time I'd noticed the sticker I'd might have been able to get in sooner, and at my age they were lucky I didn't space it out altogether. I mentioned all this to the asst. manager when I was checking in and he got it at once...he pulled out a note pad and wrote it all down
saying as he did so ,"This is one for corporate, we all use the same stickers." Good for him...now lets see if Big O corporate gets it.

When people are told that on-going small improvements are desired and that they will be measured on coming up with them, they become different people. They find that they are capable of thinking outside the established box and that it gives far more meaning to their work lives, than just a paycheck.

Abe WalkingBear Sanchez is an International Speaker / Trainer / Consultant on the subject of cash flow / sales enhancement and business knowledge organization and use. Founder and President of www.armg-usa.com, WalkingBear has authored hundreds of business articles, has worked with numerous companies in a wide range of industries since 1982 and has spoken at many venues including the Shakespeare Globe Theater in London.

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This is Part 1 of the article More Profits From On-going Small Improvements by Abe WalkingBear Sanchez.

Save a step here and a penny there and then repeat it a hundred times, a thousand times, a million times and they add up. Now use/invest the time saved and the money saved to do something productive like looking for further improvements and it really starts to add up. And along with enhanced profitability, people's lives are changed for the better.

The Japanese have a word, "Kaizen". Kai means on-going and zen means better...the Chinese word Gaisan breaks down to gai, to correct and san, to benefit. These folks have a history of struggle in order to survive and tend to be pragmatic. We Americans, in our collective memory, believe that there's always a new virgin forest to be exploited over the next hill. Our mindset about there always being "excess" makes us wasteful in our private and business lives and is a OBSTACLE to on-going improvements.

This is my 25th year of avoiding a real job by conducting seminars and training for CEOs and top business managers and I'm still taken aback to hear business executives say that the purpose of being in business is to make a profit, without any further explanation. There are many ways to make a profit, you can rip the employees off for their retirement plan or fail to fully fund the plan...sound familiar? A company can also make a profit by cheating customers and suppliers or by pulling an Enron. A better way to "earn" a profit is by "Meeting or exceeding customer expectations...at a profit".

On average 25% of the Total Cost of Doing Business is tied to inefficiencies...the waste of time, energy or materials, and I've had many CEOs tell me that 25% is on the low end ...that's a bunch. Nobel Prize winner Ronald Coase , of Coase's Law , says that there is friction/costs involved with being in business. There is the original friction or cost of finding suppliers, employees and customers. There's the on-going friction or transactional costs, and then there's the greatest friction of all... the friction of failure.

Prior to entering the training field in 1982 I had a real job as the corporate credit manager for a regional company based in Denver. My duties as the credit manager included the approval of new credit customers and the management (not collection) of past due A/R. I soon found that on average 70% plus of all past due customers had not paid on time due to "something going wrong somewhere." In the process of fixing things that had gone wrong I found that I could identify areas of opportunity for improvement throughout the entire supply chain thus driving down everyone’s cost of doing business.

The New Guy Learns From the Old Guy Who Learned From The Dead Guy:

It may not be so in some companies, but all too often employees and business managers still operate from a "They don't pay me enough to think." mindset...like automatons they repeat how they do things over and over again until it becomes engrained. And all too often CEOs and top management are complicit if not directly responsible. If you are a business manager pull out your job description, if you're a CEO pull out your managers' job descriptions and check to see if it/they say anything about "Constant Improvement". A business manager not focused on improvement becomes an administrator at best and a bureaucrat at worst.

Before improvement/change for the better can take place two thing must happen; first there must be an acceptance or acknowledgment that a business doesn't have to be sick in order to improve, there is always room for improvement. Then there must be a commitment made as to who will do what when...and the efforts must be tracked and measured.

Change always generates resistance; expect it in others and in yourself. Tell the affected employees of the changes to be made and then ask why the changes won't work...take notes for this will become a "to do" list. Keep changes small so that people can succeed, but once they mastered a change introduce the next small change...no stress no change. And of course pay people for doing what you want done...like thinking and coming up with improvements.

An old axiom says that "People respect (do) what is inspected (measured) not what is expected". Can you imagine the chaos that would result if traffic cops were pulled off the roads? In much the same way business managers need to be told that a primary function of their job is to think, to always be looking for ways to save a step, a minute or a penny...and then they must be measured.

Continued in Part 2 of the article More Profits From On-going Small Improvements.

Abe WalkingBear Sanchez is an International Speaker / Trainer / Consultant on the subject of cash flow / sales enhancement and business knowledge organization and use. Founder and President of www.armg-usa.com, WalkingBear has authored hundreds of business articles, has worked with numerous companies in a wide range of industries since 1982 and has spoken at many venues including the Shakespeare Globe Theater in London.

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Startup Students: When pricing your product or service, you should put some thought into the strategy you utilize. Are you going to undercut your competitors? Would you rather target the upper echelon? Maybe you just want to price with the market. It really depends on what you are offering, but here are some different strategies you could employ.

Penetration Pricing

This is when you want to quickly get some traction in your market by offering a lower (and sometime insanely lower) price. Benefits would obviously be the quick market penetration. But be careful, you dont want to undercut yourself out of business!

Skimming Strategy

This is somewhat opposite of penetration pricing. Do you have a relatively new technology that nobody else is offering? Why not “skim” off the customers who are willing to pay more in the beginning. Once demand from the early adopters falls, you can then lower your prices.

Follow The Leader

Sometimes it makes since to just follow the crowd and price your product competitively. Obvious products here would include commodities.

A Pricing Strategy for Everyone [Startup Students]

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Small Business Buzz: Those of us that own a business know that, at some point, there will be cause for expansion. This can be both exciting and scary. Exciting because it only means that our business is doing very well and demand for the product/service we provide is growing. Scary because it is practically common knowledge that, next to tapping into the wrong market, the transition from a small business to a not-so-small business is one of the top reasons businesses fail.

There are some clear indications that it is time to expand your business, and being able to recognize those signs will help to eliminate some of the anxiety that accompanies such a change, since you will know it is necessary.

New Challenges

One of the first signs that your business is in need of a change is the fact that you are facing challenges and struggles that you have never faced before. There may be an overwhelming feeling that your losing control of the business.

Ineffective Management

Another indication that your business may be outgrowing itself is that your current management (which may even include yourself) is just not cutting it. As a business develops and grows, the dynamics and needs of that business change. The manager or CEO you hired when your business employed 5 people and your product limited to state wide distribution, is not going to be as effective when the demand for your product expands to a national market and you’ve had to hire 20-30 more employees.

Revenue Plateau

If your revenue has been within the same range for the past two or three years, chances are the demand for your product/service has increase, but your business is not currently capable of meeting that demand. Not only do you have too few employees, but it is likely that many of the ones you already have don’t have the ability to perform at the level the business needs to succeed.

How You Know It’s Time to Grow [Small Business Buzz]

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BusinessKnowHow: Cash. Most people want more. When running a small business it's particularly important to monitor how cash is coming in and how much cash is going out. This month, I'd like to take a few minutes to share some ideas on cash flow management as in how you can keep more cash in your business for a longer time.

Periodically re-evaluate your expenses. If you are anything like me your business changes and shifts every 4-6 months and this prompts a necessary re-evaluation of the products and services you are using to run your business.

Hold off on electronics and other purchases for as long as reasonably possible. If you need to invest in a new computer or printer or copier you can save money without sacrificing quality if you can wait a few months to purchase.

Use credit responsibly. If you have access to lines of credit you can use these to finance business purchases rather than paying cash outright. This, in many cases, can give you 20-30 extra days on your money enabling you to save or invest it for maximum return.

Watch out for hidden fees. Yes, there are some "costs" of doing business. However, at least once every 6 months, review what you're paying for services like office cleaning, credit card transactions, long distance calls, liability insurance, etc.

Get paid more. Another way to manage your cash flow is to charge more for what you do. Institute planned increases in your payment rates over a year or two. Raising your fees as a cash flow strategy only works, though, if your spending remains less than your earnings.

Buy in bulk. This applies to physical products/supplies as well as non-physical ones (such as services). You can often realize a significant cost savings on items bought in bulk especially if you were going to buy them anyway.

Keep track of your discounts and other rewards. We are inundated with special offers, promotions and discounts. Use these wherever you can.

Give special consideration to your customers who pay early and in full. Customers who routinely pay their bills ahead of time, and who are rewarded for doing so, are more likely to continue this behavior which results in more cash inflow for you.

Invoice before, or soon after, performing a service. Don't wait to send out bills just once every 30 days. This can delay cash inflow for months.

Invest in the growth of yourself and your business. Spend money to market your business, invest in your own learning and get help as soon as possible. The more you put into your business, in a thoughtful and measured way, the more you will get out of it.

Cash Flow Management [BusinessKnowHow]

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We notice other people’s personalities. Usually we come quickly to a view about them. First impressions are important - and seldom wrong. Another’s personality is his or her culture. It reflects their background and character.

When you are thinking of joining a company you do your due diligence, finding out about it from its web site, its published accounts, its press reports and the views of anyone you think knows it well enough to be worth listening to.

How much can you learn about the company from these sources? Quite a lot, actually. But if you stick only to the hard data you will miss the most important consideration in deciding whether to join it – its culture.

Culture is the way a company behaves, the way it treats its customers, staff, suppliers and its other stakeholders. Every company has a culture. It is the only truly Unique Selling Proposition (USP) it has. Every other advantage it claims over competitors will be matched by their claims. Their culture is unrepeatable.

Where does a culture come from? The founder(s) of a company give it its original culture. The current bosses decide today’s culture.

How does a culture manifest itself? It is the sum of everything it does but it can be seen in the smallest individual act. The greeting by the receptionist, the treatment of suppliers who have not been paid promptly, what happens to staff when they resign – all these emanate from the culture of the business. If the faces of the staff are pinched and tired and look like scared rabbits you’ve got a Genghis Khan culture. If the staff smile, appear open with each other, cooperate, know their products, help but don’t hassle, you’ve got a good CEO in charge – and a good culture.

There are many simple ways of testing the culture of a business. One that I employ is to deliberately turn up at the wrong reception area and see how the staff there handle it. I don’t have to tell you the difference between the supermarket where they take you to the shelf of the product you are seeking and the one where they point in a vague direction and let you find it for yourself.

So it is with companies; some are helpful, some are not. A company that doesn’t help its customers or its suppliers won’t help its staff either.

A friend of mine recently resigned from an MNC after a fairly short career with the company. My friend came to the wholly reasonable conclusion that all-night working on the odd occasion was acceptable but when it was regularly four nights in a row, it wasn’t.

If you had been the boss what would you have done in that situation? Not, I hope, what the MNC did.

They harassed, attempted to bribe the person to stay, and finally openly bullied their departing employee – especially when two more employees walked out for much the same reasons.

What did they achieve?

Massive alienation by a significant number of people who will never touch their products again. That’s the sort of PR you don’t need.

What should they have done?

Talked a little, listened a lot. They could have learnt a golden lesson, had a well-disposed ex-employee, achieved good PR. They might even have kept the employee they feared to lose. Most of all, they might have understood the problem they had created.

But their culture didn’t allow them what they saw as a soft approach so they took the only one they knew. Trouble is, blowing out the brains of departing employees isn’t actually a very clever way to keep them – or anyone else – on side.

I wonder if they’ll learn that.

John Bittleston blogs at TerrificMentors.com, a site that provides mentoring for those who wish a change in career or job, wanting to start a business or looking to improve their handling of people (including themselves).

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Business Oppotunities: Every company should have a mission statement, which encapsulates in one sentence your business’s core aims.

An example of a mission statement is Levi Strauss’s: “We will market the most appealing and widely worn casual clothing in the world. We will clothe the world.” Or Wal-Mart’s: “To give ordinary folk the chance to buy the same thing as rich people.”

Unable to think of any more, I thought I’d see if I can guess a few others.

Subway
For every man, woman and child to never be more than five yards from a Subway sandwich.

Nike
To spend more on advertising than the GDP of several small countries put together.

Wetherspoons
To make a lack of atmosphere a proviso of a cheap pint.

Pizza Express
For new customers to be pleasantly surprised at the standard of décor and food in a restaurant which has ‘Express’ in its name.

Statement of Intent [Business Oppotunities]

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SmallFuel Marketing: I was recently at a rather large expo, and I decided to keep track of the many different mission statements I came across. I also kept track of the responses we got at our booth with our mission statement. Out of all the data, there was one glaring trend.

Mission statements are so common place and so exaggerated that no one even listens to them. What went wrong? How do we fix it?

1. Mission statements are too long

If you want anyone to listen until the end of your statement, it needs to be short and sweet.

2. Mission statements are too complicated

With everyone telling small businesses how to write a mission statement (me too, evidently), they have become filled with gibberish as each writer tries to satisfy every condition of a successful mission statement. Your mission statement should be focused to the point, which brings us to the next bullet.

3. Mission statements are too much about companies and not enough about customers

Many companies have mission statements that get into company heritage and history—can you think of anything more boring? The entire point of your mission statement needs to be about your customer. What are they going to get from you. Repeat after me: “My mission is about my customer.”

4. Less mission, more mantra

Company mission statements are generally just a paragraph of exaggeration that is brought out in front of customers, only to disappear before getting back to the office. Your small business needs to live and breath your mission. Everything you do and say should reinforce your mission.

If you don’t live by your mission, people will know immediately that you’re not being sincere. In a world of sensationalism, you need your mission to be as sincere and trustworthy as possible.

Mission Statements Don’t Work, Get Something That Does [SmallFuel Marketing]

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Inc.com: It may cost them more, but small-business owners seem increasingly willing to make environmentally conscious business decisions, according to a new survey.

Of 600 small-business owners nationwide, two-thirds said they would pay more for environmentally friendly goods and services for their business, according to the latest Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index poll.

At iLite Technologies, a Chicago-based technology company that designs and manufactures lighting systems for commercial markets, president and CEO Sean Callahan found that despite the higher cost, using environmentally conscious lighting materials actually results in a better finished product -- not just a greener one.

Entrepreneurs Willing to Pay More to Go Green [Inc.com]

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Reveries: Timothy Ferris used to work 14-hour days and make $40,000. Today, at 29, he says he works four hours a week and makes $40,000 a month, reports Michelle Archer in USA Today (6/11/07).

Timothy says he has put his "cash flow on automatic pilot... by outsourcing to an extreme degree," including "using virtual personal assistants from India and elsewhere to handle almost everything... for $4 to $15 per hour." He writes: "Fun things happen when you earn dollars, live on pesos and pay in rupees." Timothy advises liberating yourself "from a single location and enabling employees to escape the clutches of their bosses by proving their performance is more important than their presence".

4-Hour Workweek [Reveries]

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