adictoaloshombres: Owners

Showing posts with label Owners. Show all posts

Factoring Invoices - Financing for Small Business Owners

Do you own a small business that is growing and needs money? Read this article to learn about an easy way to get money for your business.

Keywords:

factoring, invoice factoring, factoring company

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Peter owns a successful business that is growing quickly. Like many businesses, Peter’s company has good commercial and government clients that buy regularly from him. And since Peter is really good at his business, his clients have been purchasing more and more products from him. His business appears solid.

But some cracks are starting to appear in the foundation. He’s been close to missing payroll twice. He’s delaying supplier payments. Even worse, he chose not to bid for a major government contract because he couldn’t afford to. That’s true – he couldn’t afford to bid for new business. He was afraid of having to add more employees and buy more materials.

How can that be?

Like most business owners, Peter extends terms to his clients. They usually pay him in 30 to 45 days. But, since Peter runs a small business, his suppliers demand that he pay them in 10 days. Plus employees need to be paid every two weeks.

In summary. Peter has clients that want to pay in 45 days and suppliers/employees that want to be paid in 10. Since the company does not have a lot of money in the bank, the math doesn’t work.

Is there a solution? Yes, Peter should consider factoring his invoices to fix his cash flow. Factoring will provide him with the necessary cash to pay suppliers and employees, while eliminating the 30 to 45 day wait to get paid.

Invoice factoring works as follows:

1. You deliver the product or service and invoice your client
2. You send a copy of the invoice to the factoring company for financing
3. The factoring company advances you up to 90% of the invoice. You get immediate funds.
4. Once your client pays the invoice, the transaction is settled

With factoring, Peter will be able to meet his current obligations. His company will also have enough cash on hand (or liquidity) to bid on new job proposals, allowing him to grow the business and take it to the next level.

Finding a Restaurant Equipment Supplier Crucial for New Restaurant Owners

Keywords:

restaurant supplies and equipments, restaurant, restaurant success

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If you are in the restaurant business, you probably already know just how crucial it is to find a restaurant equipment supplier who can take care of your individual needs. For those who are considering opening a restaurant, finding a reliable equipment supplier should be one of your first priorities.

So many people assume control of an already existing establishment assuming that they have a grasp on the fundamental aspects of proper restaurant management, when very few actually do. Of course, food distributors are a very integral piece of the puzzle that is seldom overlooked. Most new restaurant owners then move on to equally vital matters such as evaluating the current staff, streamlining or changing the menu and advertising the change of ownership locally. What they rarely consider is that at some point, one or more pieces of kitchen equipment will probably fail. Unfortunately, events like these tend to happen on a busy night with the front of the house packed full of customers. This is just one of the reasons to find a competent, reliable restaurant equipment supply dealer.

A good restaurant supply dealer can not only give you proper maintenance tips on your existing equipment, but also give you an idea of how much use you can expect from various kitchen essentials, such as ice machines, ovens, broilers, refrigeration units and freezers. Additionally, some restaurant suppliers offer services to help streamline your kitchen for maximum efficiency and ease during food preparation. They can give you cost estimates on replacing worn or improperly functioning equipment so that you can be prepared for doing so in the event of a failure. They can even make recommendations for cost cutting measures that will help decrease your expenditures.

Successful restaurant owners know that an equipment supplier should be more than just someone you call when something breaks. Find an equipment dealer who can offer you more. If you aren't able to find someone who will take an active interest in helping you succeed by providing the products, service and advice you need, look elsewhere. As with all businesses, cultivating the right relationships can make all the difference.

Free Credit Card Processing For Business Owners

Keywords:

Free Credit Card Processing

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Would you like to upgrade your company’s operations by taking advantage of free credit card processing for business owners? There has never been a better time to locate banks offering this service and make the best possible deal for your interests. Financial institutions are eager to work with you in opening a merchant account, and they sometimes offer attractive incentives to get entrepreneurs’ business. If you like the idea of free credit card processing, start shopping at your community banks and credit unions to see what type of deals they can offer.

Free credit card processing for business owners is an attractive perk, since some companies impose fees of perhaps 15 to 25 cents per transaction or a monthly percentage fee overall of between 1% and 2%. Being able to get free credit card processing for business owners could save you a significant sum of money each month, and over time, those savings could increase even more. Your customers will love the ease with which they can make online credit card payments, and you will appreciate the time-saving benefits of handling credit payments electronically rather than by employees who require regular paychecks.

It is a good idea to sit down with your financial institution and discuss the precise terms of the free credit card processing for business owners deal. Will you have to pay an application fee? Will annual membership fees come due each year? Are there other embedded costs that you should know about up front? Even if your credit card processing is free, other start-up expenses could add up to cost even more than the transactions would. You will want to make the best possible deal before signing an application or contract to be sure you don’t get trapped into paying unexpected high costs later.

Keep in mind that free credit card processing for business owners may not be the best perk to ask for when applying for a merchant account. In addition to start-up fees that could be imposed and perhaps increased in lieu of the free credit card processing option, you also may have to pay expenses like a statement fee, a minimum fee, a discount fee, and a license fee. These could add up initially to more than you will pay for transaction fees. Even if the free credit card processing option appears to save you money at first, is this a limited time offer? When reinstated later, will transaction fees be difficult to add to the company budget since you did not start the process with them?

You might want to get a second opinion on weighing the benefits offered with various merchant account deals. You could even ask the customers via an informal survey about the type of credit processing they are most interested in and then see how promotional offers for opening a merchant account may impact customer interests. Of course, you can always check out the benefits of paying no transactions costs, and if permissible, switch to another system later if costs increase more than expected with free creditcard processing for business owners.

Guidelines for Online Small Business Owners.

This article gives some basic guidlines to people contemplating setting up a small online business.

Keywords:

small businesses, business

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you are contemplating setting up a small online business you should realise it is simply to down to a numbers game.

The difference between businesses that succeeded and ones that do not is down to their conversion ratios, meaning the ratio of visitors who actually become paying customers.

If one in 50 of your visitors become a paying customer, then you will have a conversion ration of 2%. All businesses should aim to increase this ratio, simple things like using enticing tactics such as a sale can help.
The trouble is nowadays people seem desperate for visitors, they panic and pay for batches of visitors. Unfortunately these systems rarely increase your conversation ratio at all; in fact all they do is give you a false perception of your business.

A lot of online small business owners make 3 mistakes:

1. They put Google Adsense/affiliates everywhere, in my opinion these are good systems but they do detract from your core business.
2. They make their websites too complicated, when marketing to a worldwide audience; keep your website simple and easy to follow.
3. They get greedy, their prices are too high.

These points may seem obvious but it is often the most obvious things that people miss.

Here are some general guidelines for small business owners.

1. Spend time researching your website development.
2. Have an understanding of ‘Keywords’ and how they benefit your site.
3. List with the main search engines and directories.
4. Have patience, especially in the first year.
5. Be imaginative
6. Don’t be greedy, don’t scare potential customers away.

Remember do not get carried away by the amount of visitors to your site, simply work on improving your conversation ratio, by doing this year on year you will be well on your way to running a successful business.

http://www.bizseller4u.com

Health Club Owners: 4 Ways The Personal Training Department Can Improve Your Bottom Line

A well designed personal training department should be the "engine" of any health club. Not only should your personal training department be a profit center, but is should also promote member retention, drive referrals and lower the barrier of entry for new prospects.

Keywords:

health clubs, personal training, personal training department

Article Body:

Copyright 2006 The Fitness Consulting Group

In most health clubs the personal training department is viewed as a source of some additional cash flow and is focused on the affluent component of the clubs member base. Typically trainers will offer an assessment to new members and will only impact the club’s bottom line by selling packages to those members who can afford one, two or even three sessions per week training. Unfortunately, this is very shortsighted. A well-structured personal training department can be much more than a profit center impacting only a small segment of your club’s member base, it can be your club’s customer service center, referral and retention center and a source of as much as 25% of your club’s gross revenues all rolled up intro one. You just have to look for ways to maximize your trainers’ impact in your club. Here are four tips to get you started.

1. Generate Higher Usage Rates Among Club Members.

If you’re maximizing the role your personal trainers play in your club, invariably your usage rates will climb. By offering a complimentary personal training and program design session to all new members you will ensure that everyone that joins your club will feel more comfortable and have an initial “game plan” to get the results their looking for. When they feel comfortable in your club and feel they’re on the path to their desired results, regular attendance is a foregone conclusion. And that’s going to result in:

•Increased likelihood of them remaining a member of your club longer.

•Increased likelihood of them referring new members to your club.

•Increase the lifetime value of that member via peripheral purchases like cooler drinks, nutritional supplements, tanning sessions, fitness apparel and services like personal training and weight management coaching.

2. Improve Club Member Retention Rates.

In this market where there are new health club franchises popping up almost every other month, and new clubs opening at a break-neck pace, holding on to the members you already have has to be your first objective.

It’s much easier (and also much cheaper) to retain a current member than it is to gain an entirely new member.

You’ll have a much better retention rate if your members:

•Feel a sense of community in your club, which can begin with the personal trainers.

•Are consistently using your club. We discussed this in tip number one. If they are utilizing the services of a personal trainer or at least using the initial plan laid out during their complimentary session, their attendance will dramatically improve.

•Are getting the results that lead them to join your club in the first place.

3. Improve the Rate of New Referrals From Your Members.

If your members are getting all the things listed above, they are going to willingly provide more referrals to your club. And if your trainers are working with them on a one-on-one or small group basis, they are going to experience great results.

Your trainers can also systematically facilitate referrals by inviting clients to bring a friend, family member or co-worker to a session. This will allow the guest to experience the club as a member would rather than on a tour or by wandering around on their own during a trail membership. The guest will feel comfortable because they’re with a friend and in turn be far more likely to join you club.

4. More Clients = More Money.

If you want to reap the benefits listed previously, you need to have a higher personal training penetration rate among your members. In most health clubs the penetration rate is 2-4%. 2-4% of members utilize a personal trainer, therefore only 2-4% of those members are maximizing their results, being coached to make peripheral purchases and are great “referral champions.”

If you don’t already, begin offering one and two session per month personal training programs to members where the clients will receive monthly program design, body composition testing and goal setting. Consider offering small group personal training to bring the price point down and make it a viable option to more members. By implementing just these two strategies you should be able to push your penetration rates above 10% and start taking advantage of the benefits associated with a well-managed personal training department.

Obviously, this is not a comprehensive list of the numerous ways you can use your personal training department to improve your club’s membership and your profits, only a starting point. Take these tips, modify them to fit your club and add you own ideas to them. Before you know it, you’ll be viewing your personal training department as “control central” in your health club.

Home Business Owner's Guide to the Free Money Making Opportunity

Learn the secrets to free money making opportunities online and how you can start a home business without risk of losing an initial investment...

Keywords:

make money on the internet, earn money online, website money, home based business, residual income, money making opportu

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A home based business must be built on a solid foundation to succeed. When you hear the words "free money making opportunity" you might think it's too good to be true. But in reality, there are many legitimate free money making opportunities that enable you to sign on for free and earn a profitable income from your efforts.

Keep in mind that when a program is free to join, this doesn't automatically mean a free ride. It means you don't have to sign up with a fee to sell their products or their money making opportunities. You can become a promoter of their offer without paying to join. This differs from many network marketing opportunities in which you must pay to be a member or pay to promote their products.

Key Elements of a Free Money Making Opportunity

The key elements to look for in a free money making opportunity are: it's absolutely free to join with no fee now or later; it's a program with a reputable company with a good track record on payments and customer service; it's something you can easily incorporate in your daily schedule and still earn money online. The opportunity should allow flexibility but should also have set guidelines that are explained clearly up front. These guidelines are meant to help you understand the system and know your limitations in promoting their products.

Types of Free Money Making Opportunities

There are many different ways to make money on the Internet. If you have an existing Web business, you might consider selling advertising on your website. Some types of advertising opportunities include contextual ads (such as Yahoo Content Publishing or Google AdSense), banner advertising, e-zine advertising, or pay-per-play ad slots (ads heard on your site, but not seen - for branding companies). With this type of Internet business, you'll earn website money every time you receive a visitor or click through on your site. The more targeted traffic you have, the more you'll earn.

There are also affiliate programs in which you earn money for promoting someone else's products or services from your website. Some programs will set up a website for you so all you'll have to do is promote the Web address they give you. But beware of programs that offer duplicate sites to hundreds or thousands of affiliates. This could hinder your promotions because the competition will be very heavy.

How to Earn Money on the Internet

With a free money making opportunity, your monetary risks are minimal. You'll want to focus on how to promote the business effectively while spending the least amount of money on advertising. Once you find a great business or advertising venue, do research on promotion methods. Some of the most popular are paid searches through major search engines, banner or e-zine advertising, online auctions, article ads, online malls, traffic exchanges, pop-up advertising, and press releases. Test each avenue to find the ones that are effective for your particular business. And remember, no two Internet businesses will be the same.

Once you find some promotional methods that work, then start finding ways to earn a residual income from your efforts. Residual income might come in the form of advertising on your site where you receive monthly checks, affiliate programs that pay over and over for the same customer, or even opportunities where you can earn a lifetime monthly, quarterly, or yearly commission as long as the customer remains with the company.

With a free money making opportunity, you can sign up without worries of losing an initial investment. So start searching online today for that perfect home based business!

Business Owner's Essentials - The 5 Biggest Challenges for Today's Business Owner

There are five major challenges faced by business owners today. If you don't know what they are or you don't know how to handle them then your business is at risk. Once you get to grips with these five then your company has a far better chance of survival.

Keywords:

business, business owner, entrepreneur, exit strategy, coach

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Copyright 2006 Andy Warren

Some of these challenges have been around since business began and others are new ones that are being faced as technology and the marketplace evolves. As a business owner, you need to be sure that you are handling each of these effectively and looking out for where they might destroy your business.

1. Cashflow Management

This is the number one essential for all businesses, no matter what stage they are at. Even the most successful businesses can fail if they take their eye off the ball on cash. Your cashflow is the difference between how fast money comes into your business from your customers and how fast you pay it out to your staff, your suppliers and the tax man.

Many business owners don’t realise that their cashflow can be at most risk when they are growing fast or taking on big orders. This happens because, in most businesses, products and raw materials have to be bought and paid for before they can be provided to customers and billed. This is also similar for services, where your employees and contractors have to be paid at the end of the month but the client may not be billed until the following month or when a job is completed. And they may not pay you until some time after that.

In periods of high growth your costs can go up and out of the door long before the cash from the increased sales comes in. And suddenly you find you have a cash crisis on your hands.

2. Your staff

Your employees can make or break your business. When you choose the right ones they can massively add to the value of your business. When you get the wrong ones they can be a drain on your time, your money and they can hold back your business.

The usual mistakes made include recruiting people who are not as smart as you so that they make you look good; Hiring too fast and firing too slowly; Not investing in training and development for your staff; Not listening to what they’re telling you; Not taking up proper references when recruiting; Not adopting good, consistent and fair HR policies within the company.

Many business owners find that employee issues are the number one drain on their time and attention. And often the issues don't get resolved and lead to litigation and expensive legal bills.

The first key is to recruit high quality people, who are smarter than you, who are motivated to build and grow your business and who come with a good track record. Also, always take up references and carefully check CVs or Resumés for any gaps or inconsistencies.

The next key is to treat your staff fairly and reward them for good work. Whatever you measure and reward will get done more, so consider this carefully. Create clear and consistent policies for employee development and training and make sure you allow good time for one-to-one reviews where the discussion is allowed to be open and frank.

And above all, keep the lines of communication open and clear and trust them.

3. Getting Noticed in a Crowded Market

You may have a great product or service but unless your potential customers know what you provide you’ll never have a great business. You need to get out into the market and deliver your message to the people you want as customers.

The challenge comes with the fact that today people receive an average of 3,000 marketing messages a day. And they’ve become immune to many of them. Your job is to be able to cut through all those messages and stand out enough to get noticed by your customer.

The best way to achieve this is by focussing on a niche. This way you can target your marketing with a laser focus to match your desired customers directly. And when you specifically target your prospects with a message that is tailored to them and their needs, they’re far more likely to take notice and listen.

The standard reaction to this is to worry that by focussing on one niche you could miss out on other customers. The reality is that the scatter gun approach that throws your message out to anyone and everyone is extremely hit and miss in its results. And it rarely works now because the message becomes so generic that no-one believes it applies to them. Remember, you can always select another niche once you’ve worked the first one. So you can eventually get to all of your potential market in a far more effective and targeted way.

4. Poor planning

It’s said that when you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there. This means that without a clear plan and objective you can get distracted and diverted all over the place and never achieve what you really want for your business.

When businesses fail to plan they find themselves losing money, losing staff, losing momentum, losing customers and losing business.

Without a plan, you won’t know whether you’re on the right track and you’ll have no guide as to whether you need to go faster or approach the business in a different way. Stumbling through simply doesn’t cut it for a good business.

Making plans allows you to prepare for more eventualities. It allows you to foresee potential problems and avoid crises. It actually gives you more flexibility because you can flex around your plan and revise it as you go. It also makes it easier to make decisions because you have something to judge the outcome against. You’re able to assess whether taking a specific decision takes you further along your plan or moves you away from it.

5. Neglecting customers

The final challenge that is faced by every business in this supposedly service oriented world is neglecting customers.

After all the uphill struggle of finding a prospect, telling them about your product or service and closing a sale, are you just going to let them go? Many businesses do. They are so focussed on making new sales that they forget that the best source of additional sales and new business referrals comes from their existing customer base.

They also forget that when you neglect a customer and lose them, they will tell others. And as a customer with experience they will be believed and that can knock a significant hole in all your marketing efforts.

It costs significantly more to find and sell to a new customer than it does to keep and sell more to an existing customer. Make sure you get your customers' contact details, look after them and keep building and strengthening the relationship. The first sale should be just the beginning.

And a happy, satisfied customer can do more to market your business than almost anything else.

Business Owners: Customer Satisfaction Is Key

Keywords:

customer satisfaction

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As a consultant for people who are considering starting their own small business, I naturally have many things to share with people. Clients come to me with a host of questions about the process of starting a business and about the details of what to focus on above everything else. Once we have talked through the logistics and the finances that are necessary in starting a business, I quickly move into talking about the keys to running a successful business. The first key that I always talk about is customer satisfaction.

Before I share with clients that customer satisfaction is my number one key to success, I make them list in order of priority what they feel are the top ten keys to success in their future business. This is important because it gets them thinking about their goals and about actually having to perform for their business to be a success. Most of the time my clients rank customer satisfaction somewhere in their list, but it is very rare that it makes the number one spot. They are shocked when I reveal my list and they see customer satisfaction all the way on the top.

I feel strongly about customer satisfaction for many reasons. I guess the biggest reason is that the whole purpose of a business is to invite customers and to meet a need that they have. If business owners and potential business owners lose sight of the fact that they are in business for the customer and not for the money, then they will never have a successful business. I find that businesses are prosperous and long-lasting to the degree that they truly do make customer satisfaction the center of all they do.

Customer satisfaction means a variety of things for the business owner, but the main thing it means is that the needs of the customer are the bottom line and the driving force behind all decisions that are made for the business. It means that gaining and keeping customers is important enough to a business that they are willing to make changes if necessary based on what customers want.

Customer satisfaction is the missing key in many struggling businesses. Give customers what they want in a way they want and in a friendly matter and many more of our companies would be doing better. Customer satisfaction is hard to achieve, yet with intention and care it can be rewarding for everyone involved.

Deciphering Marketing Lingo for Small Business Owners

What's the Difference between a USP, Single Message and a Tagline? Maybe you've heard these different marketing terms, maybe you haven't. Either way they're important to succesfully market your business.

Keywords:

marketing, marketing lingo, USP, tagline, slogan, advertising

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Maybe you've heard these different marketing terms, maybe you haven't. Either way, let me help to clarify the difference between them, because you should have all three if you want to market successfully. And knowing what they are may be your first step to accomplishing all three for your business.

Unique Selling Proposition

A unique selling proposition, sometimes referred to as a USP, is the one thing that is unique and valuable about your business, product or service? And it must be unique and valuable to your prospects or ideal clients, not just to you.

It may be an inherent attribute of your product or service (it's the only blue widget available and blue is the color your ideal customers prefer) or it may be something you create. I created the USP for my business, 10stepmarketing.

There are many marketing training programs and educational products available. But there were none I could find that taught small business owners how to create and implement their own marketing plan using a simple, step-by-step, question-and-answer method.

So I created my marketing training program (name and all) to fill this void in the marketplace. And it became my "created" USP. It didn't exist when I first started training 5 years ago — I created it and built my business around it.

Your USP is an idea or a concept. It is not the exact words you feature in your marketing. You will however use it to write and create your marketing messages.

Single Message

This is what you say about your business, product or service when you market. It is the one key idea or message you include in all of your marketing. It may be very closely related to your USP, but it may not be exactly the same.

You will determine your single message AFTER you determine your USP. Additionally, look at your single message as the one thing you could tell your prospects to change their mindset about your product or service, from what they currently think to what you WANT them to think.

It is usually written in the form of a short statement or sentence. Its job is to take your prospects from what they think now to what you want them to think. Most likely you will NOT feature your single message in your marketing materials exactly as you have written it in your marketing plan.

The idea will be communicated, but you will very likely use different words in your actual marketing materials. For 10stepmarketing, my single message is "If you can answer 10 questions, you can successfully market your business." (In my case, I turned my single message into a tagline because it was succinct, it communicated exactly what I wanted, and frankly, it just WORKED!)

Tagline

Your tagline is an actual line of marketing copy you write to sum up what you do, or what you want your prospects to know about your product or service, or a key benefit they will reap if they purchase. You will draw on your USP and your Single Message to help you craft your tagline.

This is the only one of all three (USP, Single Message, Tagline) your prospects will see exactly as you have written it in your marketing plan. As stated above, my tagline for 10stepmarketing came directly from my single message. This is not usually the case, but it just happened to work out that way.

You may have the same situation. Your USP or your Single Message may be so spot-on you choose to use it as your tagline. As long as your tagline communicates a customer-focused message that's great.

Always ask yourself the question "What's so great about that?" when you are thinking of putting a tagline or any other message or copy in front of your prospects. If "what's so great" is obvious, your copy or tagline is probably already very customer-focused.

If you can further drill down to a more specific customer benefit when asking this question, then you are still in business-owner "feature-land" and you will want to keep asking "What's so great about that?" until you can't drill down any further.

(C) 2005 Debbie LaChusa

Can Small Business Owners Really Afford A Great Logo?

And is having a logo really that important? My answer to both of these questions is an emphatic YES!

Keywords:

low cost marketing, small business marketing, logo, logo mark

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And is having a logo really that important?
My answer to both of these questions is an emphatic YES!

A logo is a graphical or visual representation of your brand. Your brand is your business, product or service and what it stands for. It's whatever you are out in the marketplace selling.

Why do small businesses need a logo?

Why can't they just market using their company name? Logos are expensive, right? Can a small business owner really afford to get a logo? Or at least a good logo? Lots of questions. Some I'm sure you've pondered yourself at one time or another.

I believe ALL businesses should have a logo

You need a graphic element that captures the essence of your business and communicates an idea to your prospects and customers. A mark that can lead the look and feel of all of your marketing materials.

You only have a split second to grab someone's attention

You need to make the most of that time. A good logo can communicate a message or intrigue a prospect to want to find out more.

Before you decide you can't afford a good logo
Let me assure you that is absolutely NOT the case. Look, I've been in the ad agency business for 20 years. During that time I've worked with some of the most talented graphic artists and designers in the business. But even I did not turn to them when I needed a logo for 10stepmarketing.

Why? I couldn't. They were simply too expensive for my small business budget. So what did I do? I found a great alternative that's inexpensive, fast and good.

You can get a great logo for between $300 and $500 from a company called LogoWorks. And, you'll get a variety of logo designs to choose from and you'll have them within just a few days. Plus you'll get several rounds of revisions to make sure you are completely happy with your final mark.

What I like most about Logoworks is they require you to complete a creative direction worksheet that ensures their designs are strategically on target with your brand. This is KEY if you want your logo to be a good representation of your business. If anyone offers to design a logo for you without some form of creative brief or direction worksheet, don't do it!

If you don't have a logo, or if yours is in need of an overhaul, check out LogoWorks. You can learn more at http://www.10stepmarketing.com/valuabletips.htm

(C) 2005 Debbie LaChusa