It isn’t because the mechanics are difficult to manage. Everyone knows the basics of how budgets work: you track money coming in, you track money going out, and you do your best to plan for the future. In fact, the very simplicity of that formula is what leads some small-business owners to consider budgets not worth the trouble.

Therefore, what we’ll discuss here isn’t what budgeting entails, because if you don’t already know that, you can find it out with ease. We’re more interested in why you should budget in the first place. Our suggestion, to put it plainly, is that budgeting is a way to amplify the very creativity and adaptability that allow small businesses to thrive.

Budgets’ Reputation

You don’t become an entrepreneur because you have a burning love of spreadsheets. At least, not usually. Being an entrepreneur isn’t supposed to be about budgeting. It isn’t supposed to be about paging through endless columns of variable costs or putting caps on spending. It’s supposed to be about having the freedom to blend innovation and risk-taking with passion and expertise. It’s supposed to be about removing barriers, not building them.

That being the case, small-business owners often see budgets as antithetical to the very spirit of entrepreneurship. According to this perspective, budgets impose stifling limitations. They’re artifacts of mega-corporate culture devised by clammy-handed people in windowless rooms with poor lighting. They may be necessary evils for sprawling, inhuman conglomerates, but when it comes to organizations that rely on individual personalities and individual decision-making, budgets are more burdensome than helpful.

You might say the constraints imposed by budgeting make small businesses less nimble. Since nimbleness is one of their main advantages over larger rivals, budgets actually decrease small businesses’ ability to compete.

Or so the story goes.

Some of it is accurate. For instance, it’s true that passion and innovation go hand in hand with entrepreneurship. It’s true that small businesses should strive to leverage their size into a competitive advantage. And it’s true that budgeting for small businesses is much different from budgeting for colossal corporations.

What’s not true is that budgets impose constraints. Budgets don’t actually impose anything. They merely describe constraints that are already present. Perhaps more importantly, they describe a business’s ability to cope with and even manipulate constraints placed on it by forces internal and external.

Constraints and Entrepreneurial Creativity

If you’re an entrepreneur, you’re aware that your business doesn’t operate in a vacuum. It’s part of a staggeringly complex system. For instance, you have your relatively immediate concerns, such as your employees and your local government. You also have your relatively big-picture concerns, such as national debt and foreign trade policy. No matter what, when you start a small business you’re going to be hemmed in by laws, regulations, and unavoidable economic realities, all of which will have a major impact on how you operate.

In other words, no small business starts out in a position of unfettered freedom. The very conditions that allow small businesses to exist also impose a variety of constraints. Working capital, interest rates, the minimum wage, the minimum competitive salary for professional employees-there are countless factors that limit what you can do and how much money it takes to do it.

You can acknowledge the reality of these factors, but if you don’t have a budget, then you might not know the exact ways they’re affecting you. What particular constraints does a business in your industry have to deal with? Are there some that have a disproportionate impact on you because of the way your business functions? Can you make changes to reduce their impact? Are there constraints that you handle in an especially productive way? Can you turn this productivity into an advantage over your competitors? Do you approach some constraints the way everyone else does, even though you could be doing a better job with them?

These are the sort of questions a budget helps you answer. It doesn’t create limitations that weren’t there before. Rather, it gives you a way to assess the pre-existing limitations that every small business in your industry has to deal with. The more thorough your assessment of those limitations, the greater your ability to work within them, work around them, or in some cases, make them work for you.

Making limitations work for you is where entrepreneurial creativity comes into play. If you have enough details on your business’s limitations, then you’ll be better able to turn those limitations into innovations. A budget will help you marshal your creative energies and find the opportunities for profit embedded in the market’s constraints. It tells you exactly what assets you have to work with, and helps you map out how those assets can be put to the most productive use given the rules of the industry.

After all, most of the market-based constraints you experience will be shared by your competitors, who also have limited amounts of money and freedom. Which of you comes out on top won’t be determined by who has the fewest constraints, but by who does the best job of manipulating common constraints to find the possibilities they hide.

Speed, Spontaneity, and Profit

Small businesses, precisely because they’re small, tend to be better than their larger competitors at taking quick, decisive action. It’s one of their vital advantages. By the same token, it’s one of the challenges that all entrepreneurs are bound to face. You’ll be forced to react on a moment’s notice to emerging opportunities or perils in the market-that’s a given.

What’s less certain is the profitability of your reactions. Obviously, acting or adapting fast doesn’t do much good if it yields a loss.

So what information will you use to make your quick decisions? Do you have a detailed, practical breakdown of your business’s strengths and weaknesses? Do you know exactly how many resources you can afford to redeploy at a moment’s notice? Do you know how efficiently different aspects of your business tend to use the resources you devote to them? Are certain aspects of your business already strained? Are certain aspects flush with the potential for expansion?

A budget gives you a diagnostic readout of your organization. It tells you how much stress the business can handle and which areas can handle it. Hence, it helps you decide whether acting conservatively or aggressively in the short term will enhance your performance over the long term. Without a budget, you’ll be relying too much on guesswork, and many of your quick decisions may be needlessly risky.

Supply-chain Relationships

A budget not only helps you assess yourself, but also helps you assess your relationships with other entities, like vendors and subcontractors. This will be especially important when the market is in flux.

As you know, successful entrepreneurship entails evaluating the vast array of forces that constitutes the market and determining where-for someone in your industry, someone with your passion and expertise-the opportunities and roadblocks lie. But no one can predict with any certainty how the market will behave tomorrow. There will be surprises. Sudden chances and sudden setbacks.

We’ve already noted that the way you respond to these inevitable surprises will play a critical role in the profitability-or survival-of your business, and that your ability to make the right call at the right time will be drastically greater if you have a budget in place. This is not only because a budget tells you about your own resources, but also because a budget helps you deal with other organizations that affect you.

Let’s say you experience a sharp increase in demand for your product. It’s good news, but it brings up questions: Do you have enough working capital to provide your product to a large number of new customers/clients? What are the current resources of each division of your business? How many more resources does each division need if it’s going to ramp up its activities? How efficiently does each division tend to use its resources?

These are all internal questions that may well lead to others, such as: What do your vendor accounts look like? How much new inventory can you afford to purchase? What type of sales will you need if you’re going to pay off the new purchases on time? Can you afford to hire subcontractors to help with the push?

And, of equal or greater importance: What’s your plan for a downturn in demand? Will you find yourself in a precarious position with your vendors? Will you be able to keep promises to new customers? Will you be able to pay your subcontractors for the hours they’ve put in?

Indeed, budgeting can provide invaluable support for all your relationships. As noted on Inc.com, “your suppliers are in all likelihood mapping out their expectations for the year and you can help them do so by providing your outlook. As a best practice, you should share your budget and the variety of scenarios you might face to see whether they can handle each level of demand” (Field 2010).

Since your business is one element in a network of other businesses, it’s important for you to be able to communicate both your capacities and your expectations to the people you rely on. A budget serves as a tool for facilitating such communication. It gives you a concrete way of describing not only where you stand, but also where you will stand in a given scenario. Thus, it helps foster strong partnerships and avoid uncomfortable conversations.

This doesn’t mean sharing every detail of your budget, nor does it mean sharing some details with everyone. It simply means that guarding your budget like a state secret takes away some of its efficacy. You can use select portions of your budget to assist you in negotiating with critical partners-i.e., you can be prudent about the information you divulge without being obscure. How much do your current business partners know about your budget? Is it enough for them to understand your capacities and your needs?

The Bank

Speaking of business relationships: you don’t want to mess around with the bank. Plain and simple. This is a relationship that should be as friendly and open as possible. And what do bankers like? Budgets. As the American Bankers Association (ABA) says, “You are flying in the dark financially if you don’t have a budget for all income and expenses.”

Come to them without a budget, and bankers are going to feel like you’re wasting their time. They’re certainly not going to be interested in loaning you money (or more money). “Prepare for your financial review with your banker,” says ABA. “Have current inventories, cash flows and balance sheets ready.”

When your banker asks you how your debt is structured, and whether you have an imbalance between long- and short-term debt, what are you going answer? Trust us: if you show up to that meeting with a budget, you’ll be glad you did.

Flexibility

Just as the market’s unpredictability makes budgets useful, it also makes them fallible. A budget is like any plan: it will contain inaccurate predictions and require ongoing revision. That’s simply a condition of commerce; some academic models are predicated on entrepreneurs having perfect foresight, but we all know that’s not the case. Businesspeople, even the world’s most celebrated financial prognosticators, get it wrong sometimes.

That doesn’t render planning completely useless. Even if your plans don’t entirely match the way reality unfolds, they serve as benchmarks against which you can assess your progress. They record where you wanted to go, where you actually went, and why the two didn’t coincide. In that way, they indicate which areas of your business are performing well, and which need to be modified in order to meet next quarter’s goals.

When it comes to small-business planning, certainty is off the table. Nothing is guaranteed, including budgets. But setting expectations and monitoring progress remain indispensable to long-term survival. They help small-business owners analyze why they’re drifting off course, and also help them formulate corrective measures.

How do you see a budget? As a static report that turns old news into flimsy predictions? Or as a series of living documents that records how you adapt to change?

Personnel

Thorough budgeting calls for a great deal of effort, and many small-business owners can’t spare the necessary time or energy. Frankly, while the minutiae of budgeting are of interest to the entrepreneur, they are not the entrepreneur’s main job. If they were, then a good head for numbers and a background in financial analysis would be prerequisites for entre

In a previous article I dug a bit deeper into small business volatility but it is worth mentioning again especially in the context of getting a business started. Small business exists because large business has carved out a method to meeting the needs that doesn’t reach everyone in a market place. In other words small business is small business because large business has deemed the pursuit of such market places not worth the effort. Large businesses seek opportunities that exist in well-established mature markets. These would be markets that yield smaller margins but are also less volatile. Consequently this leaves the more dynamic and volatile markets for the small businesses. This is part of why small businesses don’t last long, they compete in an ever changing market place.

So, what does this mean for you? It means that the opportunities that will exist for you and the business you aspire to open will be opportunities that require quality and custom solutions quickly. This also means there will be a good deal of work involved in order to gain market share for you niche. Abandon any idea of providing a single product or service, you will need to diversify your products/service, customers, and possibly industries. To combat the ebb and flow of the small market place you will need diversify all aspects of your company.

Alignment

Ok, now that you understand a little about the realities of the small business market place the next thing to look into is how well your potential business aligns with who you are. In the beginning stages of a business the founder is the business and the business is the founder. To offer the most value the business should be the embodiment of you and you should be the embodiment of the business. The realization of a single opportunity should not be the only deciding metric for starting a business. As an example; A few years ago I had the opportunity to start a frozen yogurt shop in my town that would have been modeled after a profitable model that was doing well in other cities. I did my homework and found that for $40,000.00 I could have everything I needed to open the doors and start selling yogurt. I decided against it for two reasons, 1. I live in a four season’s area and I did not want to have a feast or famine demand and 2. I am not that crazy about yogurt. Now, the opportunity was there, and since then many of these shops have opened, but I didn’t want to invest 80 hours a week into a frozen yogurt business.

Market Positioning

So you have an idea that aligns with who you are, and you have come to understand the nature of the small business market place, how are you going to position your product or service? How are you going to meet the needs of the customer? The answer is somewhat laid out above, but because of the nature of the small business market place you will need to become a high quality, quick turnaround company. Small businesses have the advantage in small volume custom areas. Your competitive advantage will be your ability to cater to the specific needs of your customer. As a small business you have no business competing on price.

Margin

You are your business, and chances are you do not have much capital behind you. This means that achieving a positive cash flow situation as quickly as possible is key. Cash is king and without it you don’t have a business. The upside is small volume high quality work demands top dollar. That’s right, by being a small business you are competing in a large margin arena. The mark up on your products and services can and should be high. The market will let you know when you are too far out of range, but a healthy profit margin is to be expected with small businesses. Individuals that fail to understand this begin to lower their prices in hopes of gaining some sales but what they don’t realize is they are diluting the market and putting themselves out of business. So, don’t be afraid to charge for your work!

Growth Strategy

The last thing I will mention for those looking to start a small business is that a growth strategy is imperative. You need to have an idea of where you are going if you ever expect to make it as a business owner. By nature small businesses should only remain small for a while, if you company is not growing it is dying. Markets mature, customer needs mature, and guess what… your business should also be maturing. Knowing where your business is headed will allow you to take the appropriate measures today to set up for tomorrow’s market. A growth strategy can be vague. You don’t need to define every variable, but you should use your intuition to determine where you should position your company.

If you are planning on starting a small business understand it is a lot of hard work and there are no rules. There is no one telling you what to and not to do, you will be responsible for your success or your failure. You must be persistent and willing to invest more of yourself than the next guy in line. If it were easy everyone would do it, but because it is demanding there are only a few to compete with.

T.J. Mollahan

1. Personal and financial discipline.

2. Organizational skills.

3. Management know-how.

4. Meticulous planning and attention to detail.

5. Prioritization of tasks according to their profit potential.

6. Maximum use of available technology.

7. Accurate record keeping.

8. Maximum use of all the tax benefits that are available to small business owners.

It Takes Discipline to Operate a Business at Maximum Efficiency and Profitability

It takes a combination of personal and financial discipline to operate a small business at maximum efficiency and profitability. First, you need to have the initiative and self-discipline that’s required to be successfully self-employed. You must work smart, so you don’t waste your valuable time doing grunt-type tasks that can be hired out. In other words, don’t spend your time cleaning up trash around your office when you should be out searching for customers. Second, you need to possess the financial discipline that’s necessary to operate your small business at maximum profitability. The only way that you’re ever going to be able to keep your spending under control is by:

1. Adopting a bottom-line mentality that’s totally focused on maximizing the profitability of your business.

2. Operating your business on a bare-bones budget by buying all equipment, supplies, and services at the lowest available prices in your area.

3. Keeping close track of operating expenses by carefully reviewing all invoices for errors, overcharges, and bogus charges.

Prioritize Tasks according to Their Profit Potential

The number one question that you must continually ask yourself when you’re working in your small business is: Is what I am doing right this minute the most profitable use of my time? A lot of people fail as small business owners simply because they’re never able to prioritize tasks according to their profit potential. They end up never making a profit because they couldn’t distinguish between what’s important and what’s trivial. As a general rule of thumb, I consider any business function that doesn’t contribute directly to my bottom line to be low priority and best left for after business hours. In other words, if the task at hand isn’t part of the process of completing a real estate transaction that will eventually end with me going to the bank; I put it off until later in the day.

Avoid Reinventing the Wheel Every Time You Need to Complete a routine Task

Whatever you do, don’t fall into the trap of reinventing the wheel every time you need to complete a routine task. The term, reinventing the wheel, refers to re-creating something from scratch. An example of reinventing the wheel would be retyping standard documents, such as purchase agreements, over and over again, instead of storing them in a Microsoft Word document file where they can be printed out as needed. The point here is to work smart by making your operating as streamlined as humanly possible.

Operate Your Small Business on a Bare-Bones Budget

One surefire way to fail as a small business owner is to run your operation in a slipshod manner with no financial controls in place to keep your operating costs from going through the roof.

Do a Cost-Benefit Analysis before You Make a Purchase

I suggest that you do what I always do, before I ever part with any of my hard-earned money, and ask yourself this very poignant question: How exactly is this-(fill-in-the-blank)–going to have a direct impact on the profitability of my business? Unless you can justify to yourself why the purchase under consideration will immediately contribute to your bottom line, you should hold onto your money. This type of decision-making process is referred to in business schools as “cost-benefit analysis,” which means that if the cost outweighs the benefit that’ll be gained from purchasing an item, it shouldn’t be bought. Keep this in mind the next time that you get the urge to splurge.

What You Should Have When You Set Up Shop as a Small Business Owner

I am willing to concede that an owner could possibly run their small business without any of the basic amenities of a modern high-tech office at their disposal. However, it would be a very inefficient operation, and I am willing to bet that most small business owners, in this type of work environment, would end up spending much of their time performing tedious tasks such as retyping the same documents over and over again. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never met anyone who has typed their way to a fortune as a small business owner. As far as I am concerned, every neophyte small business owner, who’s really serious about consistently making money in their small business, should have the following six items when they set up shop:

1. Telephone service and a prepaid telephone calling card to make calls on the road from pay phones.

2. Personal computer with Microsoft Windows operating system.

3. Microsoft Word software.

4. Internet connection.

5. Black-and-while laser or inkjet printer.

6. Financial calculator.

It’s Hard to Succeed in a Digital World Using Horse-and-Buggy Technology

Computer technology is here to stay, and, if you want to make it as a successful small business owner in today’s digital world, you had better embrace the latest technology and learn how to use it to your advantage. So if you happen to be computer illiterate, the very best advice that I can give you is to buy an inexpensive personal computer (PC) and then jump in with both feet and learn how to use it. If someone with a nontechnical background like me can use a computer, anyone can.

What It Takes to Run a Small Business at Maximum Efficiency

According to the Small Business Administration (SBA), 80 percent of all new small businesses fail within five years of opening their doors. More often than not, the cause of failure can be directly attributed to an appalling lack of organization and planning on the part of business owners. I hate to come across as some sort of killjoy, but you just can’t throw a business together without any organization and planning and expect it to be an efficient operation. It takes meticulous planning and attention to detail to set up a small business so that it operates at maximum efficiency. The only way that you’re ever going to have a smooth running business is by doing the little things right, such as:

1. Maintaining a master to-do checklist to run your business.

2. Computerizing all business documents and records.

3. Setting up your business so you avoid re-creating anything from scratch.

4. Organizing your office so that everything you need is available at your fingertips.

Use a Master To-Do Checklist to Run Your Business

To keep your business operating at maximum efficiency, I recommend that you do what I’ve done for the past 20 plus years, and maintain a master to-do checklist. I keep my checklist on my computer in a Microsoft Word file. It serves as a combination checklist and appointment calendar. For example, each entry that I make on my checklist, lists the task or appointment along with the completion or meeting date. This way, nothing slips through the crack and tasks are completed on time and appointments are kept.

Deduct Your Home Office as a Business Expense

In order for a home office to qualify as a business deduction for federal tax purposes, it must be used regularly and exclusively for business purposes. For example, if you’re a part-time real estate investor and a full-time school teacher, who has a home office that you claim as a real estate investment business expense, but you use your office for both your real estate investment business and for grading student papers, your home office deduction would be disallowed if you were ever audited by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The IRS would do this because your home office isn’t being used exclusively for business purposes. The best way to make certain that your home office will pass muster with the IRS is to regularly use the space you’re claiming as your home office exclusively as your principal place of business. I comply with the IRS home office use rules by having a home office that’s located in a separate building behind my home-approximately 40 steps one way-and used exclusively for business purposes. My compact home office measures a measly 10 feet long by 10 feet wide and is a scant 100 square feet in size, but it serves its purpose quite well. I like this arrangement, as it allows me to separate my business from my personal life. For more information on how to deduct your home office as a business expense, read IRS Publication 587, Business Use of Your Home, which is available online at the IRS Publications and Forms Web site.

Accurate Record Keeping Is an Integral Part of Running an Efficient Business

Maintaining accurate records is an integral part of running any type of successful business. Yet, it’s probably the most overlooked aspect of the real estate investment business. For many small business owners record keeping is last minute ritual that’s performed annually around 8 P.M. on the fourteenth of April, and forgotten about the other 364 days of the year. Needless to say, this is definitely not the smart way to run a business. Here’s a listing of the five types of records that real estate investors must maintain in order to have a smooth and efficiently running business:

1. Income records: Income records include monthly income and expense statements, bank statements, and accounting records documenting all of the income generated by your real estate investment business.

2. Expense records: Expense records include paid invoices, bank statements, cancelled checks, and accounting records documenting all of the expenses associated with operating your business.

3. Property records: Property records include mortgages, deeds of trust, promissory notes, grant and warranty deeds, surveys, purchase agreements, property appraisal reports, closing documents, easements, blueprints, certificates of occupancy, construction warranties, building material warranties, equipment warranties, building inspection reports, termite and pest inspection reports, and utility services account information.

4. Insurance records: Insurance records include property and casualty insurance policies, title insurance policies, workers’ compensation insurance policies, flood insurance policies, liability insurance policies, umbrella insurance policies, automobile and truck insurance policies, pest control insurance policies, and equipment insurance policies.

5. Tax records: Tax records consist of property tax assessment notices, property tax payments, federal tax returns, federal withholding-tax payments, state tax payments, and county and city occupational license fee payments.

Store Original Copies of Records and Documents in a Safe Deposit Box

I recommend that you photocopy or scan all of your important property related records and documents onto a CD-ROM and store all of the original copies in a safe deposit box. This way, you’ll have all of your original records and documents in a safe, secure, off-site location where they can be easily located in case of an emergency.

Use Generally Accepted Accounting Practices to Maintain Financial Records

Over the past couple of years, there have been a slew of court cases involving fraudulent accounting practices in which CEOs and other corporate higher-ups “cooked the books” to prop up the value of their company’s stock. Unless a stay at a “Club Fed” facility appeals to you, it’s best that you stick with generally accepted accounting practices instead of using creative accounting methods, which are based on fuzzy mathematics. In basic accounting jargon, the term generally accepted accounting practices (GAAP) refers to accounting principles and practices that are standard in a certain industry. The best way that I know to keep bookkeeping straight is to use an off-the-shelf computer software accounting program such as QuickBooks financial software. This way, all you have to do is enter your financial data and the software does the accounting functions and balances the books and makes it easy for you to:

1. Identify the source of receipts.

2. Keep track of tax-deductible expenses.

3. Document expenses claimed on tax returns.

4. Prepare tax returns.

Deduct All Business-Related Travel Expenses

Make certain that you deduct the cost of all travel expenses related to running your real estate investment business. The Internal Revenue Service requires that taxpayers maintain automobile mileage logs to document business-related mileage that’s claimed on federal tax returns as a business expense. The standard mileage rate that can be deducted from federal taxes for the cost of operating a vehicle on business-related travel changes each tax year.

Depreciate All of the Equipment Used in Your Small Business

In order for your small business to earn a maximum profit, you must take full advantage of all of the depreciation allowed under the Internal Revenue Code. To do this, make certain that you claim the maximum depreciation allowed on all of the equipment used in your business to include:

1. Office furniture and equipment such as computers, printers, and facsimile machines.

2. Software programs for accounting and word processing.

How can accounting software help small business?

Business must be lean and financially sustainable to survive through the current business climate. Small businesses with large overheads and complex financing structures should work on re-organising the business to regain control of their long term economic futures. Now is not the time for reckless investment in the pursuit of growth that only adds increased debt and inflexibly that could ultimately lead to the businesses downfall. Now is the time for prudence and tight financial management that allows a business to be financially independent. Accounting software can be central to supporting small businesses become financially independent and below investigates how.

1) Complete focus on cash flow

A business owner should be 100% focussed on the financial health of their business. This means having a thorough understanding of the businesses cash flow position. There is nothing more important in a small business than its cash flow position and as result should be very tightly managed. One of the difficulties for small businesses keeping on top of cash flow is the organisation of receipts and invoices. An accounting software package easily compiles all of the relevant financial information and presents easy to understand dashboards and reports of company performance. Once provided with the required knowledge of the company’s performance appropriate action can be taken to improve the company’s performance.

2) Focus on customer satisfaction

In times of economic hardship competition is notably increased in every sense. As customers are more considered with their buying decisions small businesses need to ensure that every aspect of their proposition is appealing to the customer. Margins are widely squeezed across all industries in the hope of enticing hard-up customers and therefore the only real differentiator to attract business is customer service. An accounting software package does not only improve business productively it also helps structure all customers and suppliers into an easy to manage database. This structured knowledge allows staff to provide a more tailored service to clients.

3) Look for ways to cut costs

In this economic climate any investment that doesn’t directly add value to the top line should be cut. Accounts Payable features with an accounting software package detail every penny that is spent in the business. This allows a thorough review of expenditure to take place to ensure that savings can be made where appropriate. For example costs could be cut down on paper, postage, transitioning to direct debit payroll. These cost cuts would allow the business to reduce its operating cost without cutting expenditure that generates income into the business.

4) Consolidate Suppliers

Businesses can also use accounts payable features within their accounting software package to streamline its supply chain. Many businesses needlessly have similar supplies from a range of suppliers. Buying in bulk is always a more economical way of doing business. Condensing suppliers with larger orders is more commercially viable in reducing supply costs. Generating reports by independent supplier will provide valuable information regarding the profitability of each supplier contract.

5) Negotiate better rates with long standing suppliers

In addition to the consolidation of the supply chain there may also be an opportunity to renegotiate rates with long standing suppliers. The longer the relationship between a business and a supplier the more appropriate it would be that the business qualifies for a rate that reflects the loyalty of the relationship. Reducing the costs of the supply chain can make a significant and welcome difference to a small business P&L during tough recession times.

6) Continuously look for ways to reduce non value adding admin work

In any small business the time of employees is one the company’s biggest assets and therefore spending time on non-value adding activity should be minimised wherever possible. An accounting software package ensures that people are not tied up managing basic bookkeeping tasks and completing quarterly and end year financial reports. Managing a business’s financial affairs can be very admin heavy if not managed in the correct manner. Having efficient software to automate these admin tasks allows staff to focus their attention on growing the business and generating income.

7) Streamline payroll and human resource management

As already discussed people are a huge asset in any small business. An accounting software system can help provide detailed information around staff costs in addition to hours worked and absence information. Having detailed information about staff costs allows a business to more accurately plan for the future and correctly budget for human resources. Also from a financial perspective large fines are imposed on businesses that make mistakes on Tax and National Insurance contributions. Having automated software negates the risk of mistakes occurring at a time when fines cannot be afforded to be taken.

Streamline billing and invoicing

Not being on top of your receivables can literally be the difference between success and failure in today’s challenging business environment. An accounting software package allows a business to fully manage and organise its invoices and payments deadlines around the businesses bills and costs. This way invoice payments get received in advance of bill payments ensuring cash flow is never a problem. Having effective and well organised billing and invoicing ensures that a business income remains consistent.

9) Assertive debt collection techniques

Even if a business has streamlined invoice and billing processes there will still be some customers that do not pay on time. All of the structure and process in ensuring invoices are aligned with business costs will have been wasted unless good debt collection processes are adopted as well. Businesses should know when to make phone calls, send written communications and when work with debt collection agencies in order to optimise income collection.

10) Know you financing options

The Accounting software package allows a business owner to have detailed forecasts of predicted income and expenditure over the short, medium and long term. Having a longer term view of capital expenditure allows more intelligent decisions to be made around company financing. As a rule of thumb last minute loans tend to be expensive as owners run out of time and simply need to pay bills. All forms of business financing from credit cards to structured loan agreements should be reviewed in line with long term accounting forecasts to ensure that the best suited finance is in place at the best possible price.

It has never been more relevant for a small businesses to invest in an accounting software package. The benefits run much deeper than simply allowing businesses to keep accurate and timely financial records. Accounting software enables a business to self-analyse every business process in the eyes of profitability and business return. Businesses that adopt the mind set of accounting software by definition embrace the notion that all company expenditure should be controlled and used to drive additional revenue for the business. These lean businesses will be financially sustainable and able to withstand these hard economic times in order to be well positioned in the market to capitalise when consumer confidence returns.

At Compare Software for Business Ltd we understand how con

Skepticism or no, I’m willing to bet that by now you’ve started seriously eyeing Internet marketing for small business as a viable addition to your advertising repertoire; you’re starting to realize that this is something worth jumping on.

Let’s face it – Your competitors are doing it, so you should do it too lest you unknowingly give up a foothold in your niche.

Wait Just a Minute – What is Internet Marketing, Exactly?

Before we go any further I think it’s worth taking some time to clarify exactly what we’re referring to when we say ‘Internet Marketing’. If you’ve done any research at all on the topic of small business online marketing, you’ve probably seen a wide array of terms thrown about. It can be very confusing to learn anything at all about Internet marketing with a seemingly endless amount of ideas out there… How are you supposed to know what’s what? Well, below I’d like to briefly go over a few of the most common terms and methods that you should concern yourself with:

#1. Small Business Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Small business search engine optimization refers to getting your business’ virtual property listed on the first page of search engine results (most commonly in Google) for a select group of keyword phrases. Whether it’s a Google Places page, a YouTube video, a Facebook page or even your own website, the goal is to position yourself so that local searchers see YOU before your competition.It sounds complicated, but that’s why we’re here. The results of a successful SEO campaign can be enormous.

#2. Small Business Email Marketing / List Building

Small business email marketing is without a doubt one of the most powerful forms of lead generation out there. Imagine having the power to reach your loyal customers any time day or night with your newest and greatest promotions? Imagine being able to send your customers coupons, newsletters and other interesting content so that you’re constantly in contact with them, remotely building your brand in their mind’s eye? I’m sure with a little imagination you can start to see the possibilities… Email marketing is one of the most viable long-term marketing strategies for small business owners to consider. Your customers aren’t going to stop using email anytime soon, and the ability to stay in frequent contact with a customer even if they’re not visiting your actual place of business is too good to pass up. If you take nothing else away from this article, at least learn more about small business email marketing.

#3. Social Media Marketing for Local Businesses

This is the newest and greatest trend in the world of Internet Marketing for small businesses. Facebook alone has over 800 Million users worldwide, and most users spend a minimum of 6 hours per month on this website. As Facebook grows it’s an increasing amount of time YOU could be using to further your business. Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites are going to be some of the greatest marketing mediums of 2012 because they give you the ability to keep up with interested customers on a daily basis through websites that they’re spending lots of time on anyways. Why not take advantage of this opportunity?

#4. Pay-Per-Click Advertising for Direct Marketing

The next time you’re searching for something in Google I want you to pay attention to the right side of the screen. You should notice a few small ads that are separate from the search results. These are actually paid advertisements from Google’s AdWords program, and they’re a crucial aspect of small business online marketing.

The pay per click advertising (PPC) works is a simple 3 step process:
• Write a small ad for your business
• Pick keywords or locales to target
• Pay per click for traffic directly to your business’ website

Pretty easy, right?

This is a great way to start off your Internet marketing campaign because with Pay Per Click you get exactly the results you pay for. Want to give 100 new customers the chance to fall in love with your business? Pay for 100 clicks to your website… Done. I’m sure you can see the value in this kind of cost-per-lead advertising. Through proper lead generation and analytics you can have yourself quite a profitable campaign that runs virtually on autopilot.

And hey, want to really explode your customer base? Why not use PPC advertising to drive targeted traffic to your email newsletter so you can stay in contact with your new potential customers?

Why Internet Marketing for Small Businesses is a Good Investment

What holds back most small business online marketing campaigns that the business owners fail at marketing automation.

We’ve all learned this lesson: When you try to do everything yourself you inevitably fall behind in the areas you’re best at, and don’t get far enough in the areas you’re good at. The result is that your business slows down, and you don’t see as much revenue as you should / could. If time is money, then you can’t afford to spend an increasing amount of time on something that someone else could be doing faster.

That’s why when approaching Internet marketing for small business I recommend enlisting the assistance of a trained professional.

Time and time again we’ve seen a much greater ROI when the business owner focuses on running an outstanding business, while the Internet marketers do what they do best – Capture the interest of potential customers. Whether you decide to pursue small business search engine optimization to bolster the rankings of your website or social media marketing to get the word out through Facebook / Twitter, you can rest assured that you’ll see better results from someone who’s done it before.

Internet marketing for small business doesn’t have to be time consuming, and it’s certainly doesn’t have to be expensive. In fact, an Internet Marketing campaign can be relatively cheap when compared with other marketing strategies for small businesses! As a small business owner you’d be giving up a lot if you limited yourself to offline marketing only, so I urge you to consider the techniques and methods outlined in this article. I’m sure you can find an Internet Marketing company or service provider who would be more than willing to help you with these internet marketing services so you can start finding new potential customers on autopilot. What are you waiting for?