How Having A Way With Numbers Will Lead You To Success

/in , /by

No matter what kind of business that you run, it is absolutely essential that you know how to manage your numbers. So many companies end up bankrupt or missing on out amazing deals because they haven’t understood something, or they have miscalculated and are now at a total loss.

While being a good manager is important, if you don’t know the basic ins and out of transactions and financial management, you won’t get very far. Even knowing how to take out a loan with companies like Summit Financial Resources without having to worry about all the terms and conditions on interests, will save you.

Like anything; if you want to thrive in something you do, you should apply yourself to it as much as you can, drawing out as much information and going over that again and again so that it’s stuck in your mind and becomes second nature to you.

That’s how we learn.

Here are some of the most basic ways you can boost up your number skills.

Hire an accountant

Hiring an accountant to deal with all your money transactions is a great way of knowing that the job is under control, and allows you to have peace of mind. Trying to manage it all yourself can be very overwhelming and stressful, which then makes it more likely for you to mess up and make a mistake. An accountant will be able to monitor all of the money coming in, and all of the money going out of your accounts, ensuring that it is all done correctly and you aren’t missing anything. But not only that, they also deal with tax and any other things that you need to stay on top of so that your business is sticking to all the rules and doesn’t risk finding itself in any trouble down the line.

Speak to a financial advisor

If you aren’t sure what you’re doing, what to invest your money in, and what to put away safely, then a financial advisor will help you with making all those kind of decisions. You would sit down, and break apart your business finances with them, and they would work out what risks are good ones, and what risks you just can’t afford to make. They will help you figure out how to earn more of an income more often, while teaching you how to pay less in areas of your business like for manufacturing fees and marketing strategies. Advisors are trained to spot things that you may not, because they know exactly where to look. So bringing in a fresh set of professional eyes can make the whole world of difference to how your business is run.

So as you can see, these are only a couple of examples as to what you can do, but they are by far the most effective. A lot of people don’t like the idea of having to reach out for help, and bring a stranger into their company, but sometimes it’s necessary if you want to grow.

Geting to Grips With Your New Business’s Finances

/in , /by

Starting a new business can be challenging, especially if you don’t have any financial training or experience. Your company will grow with wise financial choices and decisions, and there’ll be little room for error, especially in the first tentative months. However, this does not mean that you can’t do a little research and ensure that you seek the right advice so that your startup can begin to thrive, and you’ll become financially savvy as you evolve with your company. Therefore, it’s worth taking some time and making an effort to better understand your income and expenses. You’ll also need to work on where you’re you’re going to invest, save, and improve regarding your cash flow.

The more knowledge and understanding you possess surrounding your business finances, the more clarity you’ll have when it comes to important decision making and spending. It can be a challenge to gain the interest of other investors and those who will help you to take your business to the next level, especially when you’re a small fish in a big pond. Therefore, you must get the basics right regarding your money so that your success and reputation can proceed you in a meeting or networking event. The following are some ideas, inspiration, and advice for those who need a confidence boost regarding their business and its finances.

Get Yourself A Great Rating

When you’re trying to be careful with your funds, and save wherever you can; you might think that getting yourself a credit card might be a bad idea. However, it’s worth getting one so that you’ll have a credit rating or score for you and your business. Without a credit score, it can be difficult to gain investment or receive a loan, and you’ll probably need these at some point to invest further in your company. Take a look at the discover it review so that you can better understand how a credit card could work in the favor of your business. Alongside having a great credit rating; you’ll be able to receive rewards and even cash back on certain things when you use the card to spend, so it’s well worth looking into. As long as you’re prepared and able to pay your monthly bills back on time; there’s no reason a credit card and its resulting score, won’t be beneficial to your company.

Get Yourself Some Professional Advice

In order to ensure that you’re making the right choices regarding your money; you’ll to invest in expert help and advice. Hiring a reputable and qualified accountant to look over your finances, and advise you on what to do with your spending and saving, will give you the peace of mind that you’re making the right decisions for your business. They will be able to help you understand your monthly figures and targets, and they can suggest budgeting tools for when they’re not there; investing early on in expert advice will make sure that you reap the rewards further down the line.

How to Save Money for Your Business

/in , /by

We don’t tend to be very thoughtful when it comes to business spending. Truth be told, most companies wait until they’ve hit a cash crunch before they start looking at their spending levels and end up having to cut key personnel because of that. Avoiding losing valuable members of staff because the business overspent when the good times were rolling along and expected to never end should be a priority for any CEO who understands that people are the lifeblood of their business.

Here are a few ways to begin reducing the spending levels to give the company breathing room in difficult economic times; possibly even allowing for expansion plans when competitors are having to cut back.

Better Contract Negotiations

When negotiating with suppliers, making payment arrangements that spread the cost over a longer period makes cash flow easier to manage. Even if the sales don’t add up to as much as hoped, at least the costs of the purchases are distributed well. Make the payment terms part of the agreement, not something to tack on at the end. If the sales staff intimate that that’s not their area and try to brush it off, then ask them to bring the finance people into the meeting (by phone if necessary) to get a deal done to your liking.

Sub-let Space You’re Not Using

Does the business currently lease more space than it needs? Whether it’s a warehouse facility or an office, other people will pay dearly for the convenience of an office (or part of a larger one) that’s near to where they live. There are plenty of ways to rent an office out without needing to pay a high fee to a broker, which would make it a bit pointless otherwise.

Renting a “hot desk” is all the rage with digital nomads at the minute because they can grab a desk for a week or a month and use the photocopier, the internet, and the other facilities while there. Eager to fill the need, sites like Desks Near Me and Deskcamping act as an intermediary, connecting spare desks with people who need one.

Frugal Spending & Money Management

Spending less and managing money better go together. There’s not much benefit to watching the pennies if the dollars are flying out the door faster than you can cut back. A company that’s lost its way when it comes to the financial management side of the equation will struggle mightily as a result.

One way to get a handle on this is to study for an Ohio University masters in financial economics, which covers financial markets, business accounting, and touches on a broad range of subjects to better understand money. The Ohio University course delivers a well-rounded education on financial matters, which is bound to help staff who are struggling to manage the money well. This Ohio University online course is accessible over the internet, so no time is lost in traffic getting to the campus on time.

Managing money helps in all aspects of a business because when there’s too little of it available, all the clever strategic thinking in the world won’t save the company. Just like with the foundations of a house, getting the money management right provides something solid that can be built upon.

Keeping your small business in the green

/in , /by

One of the biggest worries you’ll have with running a small business is keeping it afloat. Will you get all those contracts you’ve forecast? Will clients pay on time? Will you have enough funds in the pot to further expand and develop your company, to take on staff and to create new products and services? It all comes down to running a strong company, planning and strategy – and adapting where you need to. Particularly, if you’re starting with relatively little cash in the bank in the first place.

Feeding the cash monster

Running a small business, on the face of it, may seem straightforward – including with the finances. You make a sale, you take the payment. Simple? Not necessarily. How you run your cash flow is vital in determining the success of your business. There can be lots of costs associated with running a venture, some you may not encounter until they are staring you in the face. Effective financial planning is very important.

If you had some start-up capital to kick off your business, make sure you don’t blow it. As part of your business planning, you need to look at the priority areas for spending – and stick to your targets and goals.

If you’re putting some of your own money into the business to get it going, think carefully. Make sure you’re leaving enough to cover all of your personal bills and expenses. You may want to think about consolidating your finances into one personal loan, to free up a little more cash to invest. Have a look at an online platform like Bonsai Finance, to see what’s out there.

When you’re running a small company, you need to leave yourself some wriggle room. By that, you need to have some cash in the bank all the time. Why? Because your clients may not pay on time, or contracts may get cancelled. But, you still have the bills to pay – and you don’t want to find yourself in a predicament.

Do you need an office?

When you start up your business, have a think about where you are going to be based. If your company doesn’t need a storefront, do you need to have an external office? Could you work from home to begin with? If you have a spare room, why not convert it into an office? If you sign up to a serviced office, for example, you could be locked into a contract for months. And what happens if your venture doesn’t work out? It could be a costly mistake.

If you do need a storefront or other trading premises, make sure you do your homework. Not only into how much it’s going to cost you and for how long, but also the location and nearby facilities. If you’re relying on customers dropping in to buy your products, for example, have you picked the best area in terms of your target audience? Is it the most visible location? Will your location bring in the revenue you’re looking for?

Know who you’re selling to

You would know that selling ice in the Arctic probably isn’t the most profitable business venture. But, joking aside, you really need to know your client base – to keep up your revenues, and to stay in the green.

For all companies, it’s vital that they have a profile of their customers in mind in everything that they do. They are real people, or real companies, and you need to understand their personalities, needs and desires. And, when you have them, you need to look after them – so that they come back time and time again.

This isn’t just about you and your business planning. It’s about equipping any staff you have with the skills and knowledge that they need to sell to your client base.

As with all things now, trends are changing all the time. Make sure you keep up with your marketplace. Your customer profiles and wants may change, depending on all sorts of circumstances, make sure you keep up with them and adapt your approach accordingly.

Get social

A great way to connect with your clients, and new potential clients, is through social media. If you’re running a small business, you need to make sure that you not only have a website, but profiles on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Get your follower numbers up and spread the word about how great your company is.

Social media can be a useful marketing tool, to promote new products and services – and to highlight promotions and incentives. Think about adding some photos and videos now and then. But make sure the standard is good.

With social media, you need to make regular posts to make an impact. You need to be adding content most days, if not every day. Your profiles can also help drive up traffic to your website, so make sure it’s all connected up.

Stand out from the rest

Running a successful business is all about moving forward, not standing still. As well as keeping up with your customers’ changing needs, always keep an eye on the competition – to see what they’re offering. And always think of new ways to win new business. Could you refine some of your existing products or services? Are there some new ones you can offer? And are there any add-ons you can create?

If you’ve been running a small business for a while, is it worth having a re-think about your company branding and image? Does it look tired and out of date? Has your business developed down a different path? Has your client profile changed?

If things have changed, consider updating your website, logo and overall branding. You need it to reflect what you do, and it needs to look great. Don’t think you’re all alone with this. If you don’t have a marketing person in-house, then think about hiring in a consultant for a few days to give you some top tips and advice – it could make the difference when it comes to future sales!

Cut The Costs of Your Business Without Cutting Corners

/in , /by

In business, being able to keep costs as low as possible is key to get the maximum return for your business. But what many businesses get confused with, is the fact that cutting costs doesn’t have to jeopardise jobs or quality in your business or product. If you think honestly about how to resolve the business’ insufficiencies, then it can really make a difference. So here are some good ways to reduce costs at work, without having to reduce quality. Because in the long-run, if quality is reduced, it is going to affect your bottom line after all.

StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article
Photo courtesy of Pixabay

Reduce Overhead Costs

If you have reduced costs of where you work from, then it can make a big difference. Your office and employees can cost you a lot of money. So could you arrange a rota where half work from home on certain days and then swap on other days? When you need a smaller office space, or don’t need an office at all, it can make a massive difference. You could also look to outsource or always hire remote employees from now on. Those are both ways to cut down costs, but still get the job done to a good quality.

Outsource

Along similar lines, outsourcing is a great way to cut down costs but still get some exceptional work done. The reason being, you get experts in their fields working as freelancers. They will dedicate their time to your project to get it done and then that is it until you might need them again. So it makes things cheaper than having a full-time employee. It also helps to work to timelines, which is helping to still delivery a top quality product or business to your customers and clients. Look at your current tem, though, to see where their existing skills lay. If you have someone that is quite capable to achieve the same task, then it could be cheaper for them to do it. It all depends on what people are already able to do.

Avoid Company Cars

Company cars can be a massive expense for the business, particularly when it come to tax. So if your business involves a lot of driving to see clients, then using your own car and expensing the cost of the fuel can be a cheaper way to go. It can also work out cheaper to lease cars, from somewhere like Flex Fleet, for instance. When you only need cars or trucks for a set amount of time, then it means you only pay for what you use, rather than it taking a chunk of money out of the business.

Talk To Suppliers

If your business involves working closely with suppliers, then make sure that you are doing just that. Your costs are going to affected by their costs. So talk to them regularly about how to improve systems as well as reduce the cost of things. It may be that they need a new piece of equipment to make something quicker and cheaper in the long-term. If so, you could help them towards it, for example. It is certainly worth having that conversation, though.