Info of Small Business Management

Small business management pertains to the independent ownership, supervision and control of assets, resources, products, services, workforce and profits of an enterprise which is not prevalent in its area of operation.

In an economic atmosphere that breeds and sustains entrepreneurship, a lot of individuals are attracted to the prospect of possessing and directing his own business. They choose having a small enterprise to be close to costumers–enabling fast, flexible, and personalized service, to innovate less expensively, and to manage solely.

Managing both small and large businesses involves the five major functions of management–planning, organizing, directing, controlling, and coordinating.

The mistake that most small business owner-managers commit is giving less attention to planning and controlling functions. These two, when fulfilled effectively would result to excellent goal setting. And the success of every business relies heavily on its long-range goals.

The most popular approach applied to most small businesses is management by objectives or MBO. The reason for this is that it is result-oriented and jobs are perceived in terms of achievements rather than simply functions.

The first step in developing an effective MBO program is to define your business. A transparent and attainable vision of the business is critical for planning, … Read the rest

Attention Small Business Owners

The first thing you need to do to save money is to keep accurate records of your inventory and other business records. Take time to describe your assets, and jot down how you bought your property. Take time to insert dates of services and placement as well as other details, since you will need these records come tax day to save money.

You have a tax cut on space in your home. A certain amount of area in your home is a write off. I think about 6′ by nine unless you have a larger home business.

You can save money on business expense. Keep all your records and receipts on paper you buy, computers you invest in, or any other business necessities you may. You can even write off printers, fax machines, computers, or other losses that apply to your business.

You can also receive child allowances. If you have children and work at home, you can receive up to $1500 back from the IRS. Learn how and talk with your tax accountancy to see if you are eligible.

When you travel for business jot down how much money you spend in gas. Write in wear and tear of … Read the rest

About Keeping Score In Small Business

Imagine you are at a baseball game and the scoreboard is not working. Imagine further that neither of the managers is keeping track of balls and strikes, or outs, or runs. How would the manager decide when to bunt, swing away or steal? How would the players know which base to throw to? Further, if no records are kept, how would they know who their best hitters are? How does each hitter do against right or left handed pitching? I don’t think either of the managers of these teams would be in a position to devise an effective strategy for winning the game. If the talent of each team is roughly equal, strategy will determine the outcome of the game. In fact, the weaker the talent of any team is, the more important strategy becomes.

Of course, this does not happen in the real baseball world. But it certainly happens in the small business world.

Accounting is nothing more than keeping score. It is a virtual certainty that the failure to measure results in a timely manner will result business owners discovering what has happened after it’s too late to do anything about it.

Keep in mind that measuring results … Read the rest

GPS Tracking For Small Business

The refinement of GPS units and their manufacturing process is allowing lower overheads and more discreet tracking than ever before. As the technology improves, companies become more in tune with efficient manufacturing techniques, which in turn can reduce costs for the consumer. This ultimately leads to heightened usability, as well as affordability for the small business. Additionally, this is perfectly legal for private use, which means it can be a great asset to business, with no legal expense or hassle. If you’re involved in transport, or have unique or expensive goods, your business could almost certainly benefit from this advancing technology. If you’ve ever lost stock to theft, or felt out of the loop with your fleet’s movements, GPS might be something you should consider.

The main benefit of GPS over other forms of tracking is its precision and accuracy. Because the process involves interplay between satellites, this is a tremendously advanced technology, and a fine science. As a consequence, you can expect accurate results, with a guaranteed margin of error of only on metre, to anywhere on the planet. Additionally, communication is virtually instant, allowing you to quickly find the information you’re looking for. For the small business, this … Read the rest

Small Business Secret Weapon

Overseeing the daily operations of a business is an enormous task if one hasn’t the necessary skills or, frankly, time to manage it all. Enter the secret weapon: a Virtual Assistant, or VA. VAs work with clients to identify tasks or projects that need to get done but for whatever reason are only marginally completed, left for eight months on the list of “things to do today” or become a fond memory of what might have been. Once identified, the client has the VA complete those tasks or projects.

The services a VA offers depends on the needs of the client and the skills of the VA. A few of the most common services include: general administrative support, writing/editing services, event planning, concierge services, business procedure development and start up assistance to new businesses. If a company needs something done, there is a VA out there who can do it.

Collaboration with a VA could be seen as unnecessary or costly to some but it’s important to consider the value a VA can offer. Clients only pay for the services the VA provides and nothing more because they are contract workers not employees. In turn, clients use this new found … Read the rest

CRM Application in Small Business

The need for CRM Application for small business:

  • Collection and analysis of customer information.
  • Integration and availability of mission critical data, for all the employees on demand any where any time.
  • Automated sales, to facilitate faster provision of product-centric services synchronizing with the changing trends.
  • In order to plan your marketing strategies, which in-turn will ensures quicker turn-around time to product-centric services.
  • Using a CRM application to plan your marketing strategies, ensures quicker turn-around time to product-centric services..
  • Fully scalable web-based feature-rich streamlined approach.
  • Secure as well as low risk data base.

In order to select the most efficient CRM application that will be a perfect fit to your unique special requirements, you will need to make sure of the following …

  • Research your business requirements and your end goals.
  • Enhancing business activities from around the globe from a single location.
  • A full scalable web base.
  • Click away feature-rich techniques.
  • Easy to customize to your organizational set-up.
  • Satisfaction more than exceeds cost.
  • Low risk solution
  • Zero skills adaptability.
  • No additional infrastructure requirements.

CRM applications, provides world class technical expertise in combining, consulting and analyzing your critical business problems. With its excellent cost-effective customer-centric services, it ensures to boost your … Read the rest

Small Business Technology

Web Site

This is a low cost and efficient means to give you 24/7 customer support, sales and communication, not just in your geographic area, but around the world. Your Web site can even be a tool of internal communication for your employees. The big hype of making tons of money “over the Internet” is exaggerated, but your Web site can be an excellent communications and advertising tool — which leads to indirect profits — and even a direct money making tool if developed properly. A good website explains your product or service and introducing perspective customers to your business. Remember to focus on the customer when designing your website, not yourself. Focus on benefits and advantages that you offer.

Email

Neater and cheaper than faxing, faster then FEDEX or the Post Office. Email is the premier tool for communications. For example, one of my client companies had telephone bills that reached into the thousands of dollars per month; after implementing a simple email system their phone bill was $68.00. They actually communicate more frequently, but email has cut down on expensive faxing costs. The danger of email comes from junk mail, viruses and bad email etiquette.

Junk mail can … Read the rest

Small Business Tax Tip

There is a general rule in tax law that says all “ordinary and necessary” business expenses are deductible. I’ll spare you the details about the arguments over this phrase, but suffice it to say that it basically means that in order to be deductible, an expense must be a legitimate expense that pertains to your business.

So what personal expenses do you have that could legitimately pertain to your business? Well, let’s take an easy one: Subscriptions. Do you subscribe to your local newspaper? Can you deduct it? Well, do you need to keep up on your competitors’ advertisements in the paper? Do you need to keep abreast of the job market via the classified ads to make you more effective at hiring and compensating employees? Any other reason you might need to read your local paper? If so, you can deduct it. Same with your local business journal, The Wall Street Journal, and various industry and trade publications.

Next is clothing. The IRS says any clothes suitable for wearing outside of work are not deductible as a “uniform.” So a pair of blue jeans, or even a business suit is not generally deductible. But if your company name … Read the rest

Insuring Small Business

Typically all small business’s need General Liability insurance. As the name states, it will provide standard coverage for your premises and operations. It is up to you what your limits should be, but they should be ample enough to protect you in the worst case scenario. Most businesses will need to go beyond a general policy and get some form of specialty insurance which is specific to their industry. Listed here are some of the available types of insurance:

  • E-commerce – Insures against any loss incurred due to internet intrusions such as hacking for customers personal information.
  • Auto – This is very important if your business owns or utilizes any type of vehicle. It is separate from the General Liability policy.
  • Workers Compensation – If your employee gets injured on the job you will be covered. Some businesses are required by law to have Workers Compensation coverage depending on the number of employees they have. This varies by state so make sure you check with your state government.
  • Errors and Omissions – Anyone who gives advice or performs a professional service needs this coverage.
  • Umbrella – Gives you excess coverage over and above your General Liability Policy. It does not
Read the rest

Marketing Small Business Online

The formula can be summarized by the acronym CTPM.

The “C” stands for content. This means your business website must contain valuable content that visitors want and desire. Your content is like honey to bears, it will attract your prospects and keep them coming back for more.

The “T” stands for traffic. This means in order for your business website to survive and be effective it must generate massive amounts of visitor traffic. There are many ways to generate traffic to your site to include but not limited to search engine optimization, email marketing, article marketing, backlinking, etc. Your website must use a traffic building system or it will disappear into cyberspace.

The “P” stands for pre-sell. This means that your website must warm-up your visitors and put them in a buying mood before you try to sell them something. Pre-selling is a soft-selling process whereby you give visitors free information, sign them up to your newsletter or give them a free gift related to what you later want to sell them. In essence you prepare them for the hard sell by first getting acquainted with them and gaining their trust and confidence

The “M” stands for monetization or making … Read the rest