Small business owners have to think ahead.
Now that you are a small business owner – what next? Think of the long haul, remember all the planning and research that went into starting your small business. Hopefully your expectations are being met by all that effort you put into the planning stage of your new business. If so, it has paid off with positive results that are satisfying and uplifting at the very least. Now, you need to maintain that momentum in investment in research and analysis and sustain your short-term success as you anticipate the future.
Now we will show you how to develop a strategy for managing the long-term growth of your business.
First: Take Another Look At Your Business Plan
Don't set your business plan aside just because everything is looking good now that your start-up phase is over. Use your business plan as a point of reference that you refer to often to make accurate estimates that reflect present realities. Even small changes in the marketplace may require you to adjust your plan to include existing conditions. Like a football game, each new play is a consideration of the last play.
Second: Keep An Eye On Those Numbers
Keep a close eye on your financial statements because it provides you with insights into the health of your business. You can project future cash flow by several months based on current activity, expectations for sales and income, demand for your product and services, set overhead (e.g. loan payments utilities, and rent) and other factors. By comparing actual cash flow to projections, you can spot changes that will help improve performance.
Third: Reach Out And Develop Relationships
Even though you may be gaining a reputation for good service, it may be a little premature to consider bringing aboard additional resources. Broaden how much you can do by developing friendships with other businesses in your field. Assist your competition and in most cases they will return the favor by referring overflow work to you. Be honest and don't try to steal your competitor's customer when you are assisting them. If they trust you, they will call on you to back them up when they need help—perhaps at a time when you could use the work.
Fourth: Delegate Time-robbing Tasks
As your business grows it will place more demand on your time. It is important to identify trusted employees who are capable and can accept routine and managerial responsibilities. They’ll welcome the opportunity for personal and professional growth and it will free you up to focus on matters of more importance.
Fifth: Watch the Big Picture
What are the issues or trends which affect your business? No matter if your business is small or large you must be vigilant in all aspects that can change your business environment. Stay current with your community and conditions, study your sales records and talk to customers, suppliers and colleagues. Being aware of possibilities will make you less susceptible to surprises and better prepared to anticipate and capitalize on current conditions.
Sixth: Never Stop Learning
One of the biggest assets you have and what brands you as an authority is your knowledge. Make sure to acquire as much knowledge and instincts as possibly as your business experience grows. Even open minded, veteran entrepreneurs can benefit from the perspectives of others. That’s what makes experienced, retired veteran business people so valuable to the novice. Experienced volunteer counselors serve as idea evaluators for new ventures as well as provide advice on issues both routine and unexpected. There is a free service called SCORE that is made up of experienced retired business people who volunteer in assisting new business owners.
Seventh: Be Innovative
Be willing to investigate new ideas and concepts. Where does innovation come from? Listen to unsatisfied customers. Your customers are a sounding board for problems that may exist and new concepts for change.
Demographic changes in society. As the population gets older how is it going to effect your business? The new generation is more adapt to electronic games and devices, how will it effect your business?
Luck: Business is a collection of predetermined issues. Luck is not a factor because it is random in nature and therefore unpredictable.
Imagination: Every business owner must have some imagination to be able to see the big picture. Figures and facts are good but it take imagination to put it all together.
Vision: A person without vision will become stagnate and die. Having a vision for tomorrow produces dreams, desire and motivation. It is the visionaries who are the backbone of business and government.
Problem-solving: Business owners must become adapt to problem solving. Every day is made up of problems and solutions in which the business thrives. A good problem solver will drive the business forward without unresolved crises.
Remember:
Always be on the lookout for new innovations. There is always room for freshness.
Keep it simple, there's no need to be complicated, it only serves frustration.
Start small, take it one step at a time. Plan each step and execute with diligence.
Try, try, try again, never give up. If one thing doesn't work, adjust your tactic and try again.
Even though there are a lot of givens and trials when starting a new business; most problems can be overcome with a little thought. Make sure your business plan is solid and you have the desire to see it through by paying the price and being true to your convictions. We wish you success in your venture and future.
What To Do - After The Business Start-Up
Cash Flow Management
In order to stay in business, it's important to have the fundamentals right. A very basic fundamental is managing the cash flow of the business. Cash is literally the life blood of a business. If a business isn't adequately capitalized, it won't survive.
Many businesses are founded "on a shoestring". They grow by reinvesting the earnings of the business. If the owner(s) withdraw the earnings to support a lavish lifestyle, they have put the cart before the horse. Most businesses experience cycles of good times and bad times, growth and retraction. Without accumulating a "war chest," the business will be unable to survive a downturn. Further, without reinvesting earnings, the company usually will be unable to exploit the opportunities of the good times by financing expansion.
Many of the founders of companies that are now prominent lived modestly, even after their companies became successful. Some examples are Sam Walton, David Packard and Bill Hewlett. These people habitually avoided extravagance because they were focused on building something significant. The financial systems of their organizations are exemplary. They recognized that managing the finances of their organizations was fundamental for survival and growth.
It's good to enjoy the fruits of your labors - after the harvest. But don't consume the seeds for next year's crop.
OsCommerce Performance Module
Do you know that customers don’t wait for loading a web-page more than 5 seconds – they just leave it. And they do not trust to an online store if it is slow. Frankly speaking, long loading just irritates them.
Stop loosing your clients because of slow performance of your web-store! There is a great solution - Performance Module by MagneticOne! The Module makes page loading time much shorter!
How does osCommerce Performance module work? It implements smart way of caching - storing and reusing parts of page that take much time to load/generate. It gives much higher speed up comparing to standard shopping carts caching because of smarter approach. First time when page is accessed - it is generated as normal (no speed gain), when page is accessed second time - it is taken from cache.
How much speed do you get - some examples:
- Large store with 12 000 products and 1279 categories
Before performance optimization: 4.33 sec - after performance optimization: 0.64 sec
676% increase
- Medium-size store with 800 products and 23 categories
Before performance optimization: 2.23 sec - after performance optimization: 0.41 sec
212.38% increase
Here are some main osCommerce Performance module features:
- Greatly increase performance
- Greatly reduce server load
- Supports unlimited number of products /categories (supports large stores)
- Very easy installation , 5 cut&paste steps necessary - start using in 5 minutes!
- Enable/Disable with few mouse clicks
- Completely automated - no additional support/management necessary
- Multiple configuration options: Cache Time Cache Folder Folder Size Cache Folder Compression
osCommerce Performance Module greatly increases performance of your osCommerce-based store. Your clients will be satisfied with the speed you web-store is loading and you will not loose them!
Go to http://www.magneticone.com/store/osCommerce.Modules/osCommerce.Performance.module to read more about the Performance Module.
The Module was developed to improve performance of your osCommerce-powered online shop. And it does it excellent – check by yourself, download trial version here http://www.magneticone.com/store and see how fast works your store now. By the way, we use it for our own store right now.
Don’t wait - speed up your web store and increase sales today!
The Truth About Selling Your Structured Settlement
Structured settlements are an increasingly popular option for resolving injury or damage claims. These types of agreements allow the beneficiary to receive periodic (usually monthly) payments instead of a single, large payment all at once.
This might turn out to be a great option for some people, since the settlement is usually arranged so that they payments cover some or all of the injured party's medical and/or personal expenses. However, with the high cost of medical care, some people may need a larger sum of money to cover the additional cost or that money might be needed to cover other non-medical expenses.
If you're receiving payments from a structured settlement as a result of an injury claim, you have several options if you need to get more of your money immediately versus having smaller payments trickle in over time. There are several companies that specialize in purchasing structured settlements and this can offer you a quick and easy way to get access to more of your money with very little headaches.
Usually, you can sell either part of your structured settlement or the entire settlement. However, one thing to keep in mind is that the amount you receive as a lump sum will probably be significantly less than if you added up all the payments you would have received over time. In other words, there's still a "cost" in selling your structured settlement. But if you need money now, the cost is reasonable and you can get enough money to meet your current needs, this can turn out to be a great, creative solution to an otherwise stressful situation.
You can either work with a company that will buy your structured settlement directly or with a company that acts as a broker, putting you in contact with a large number of financial institutions who might be able to meet your needs. Working with a broker saves you time and energy since you can get multiple offers and choose the lender that best suits your needs.
The great thing is that more often than not, a broker can get you a free quote based on some simple info you provide. Then, they will notify their network of lenders who will then respond with their offers. You can choose which offer to accept or simply walk away. This is a huge time saver when compared to researching, contacting and negotiating offers with each financial institution one-by-one and all on your own.
Of course, when going this route, you definitely want to make sure you're working with a structured settlement broker with a vast network of financial partners. That will get your information in front of more lenders and will hopefully result in more offers.
If you simply want to receive a lump sum of money but don't have any particular reason for doing so, this probably isn't an option you should consider. Instead, this should be used for emergency situations or situations that truly require quickly raising money for a specific purpose.
But if you find yourself in an emergency situation, facing a financial challenge requiring you to raise money fast, and you're also receiving structured settlement payments, this is one of the most flexible options available to you.
If that's the case, start investigating your options immediately.
Top 7 Tips to Prevent Cancer
A complex mix of factors related to environment, lifestyle, and heredity plays a role in the causation of cancer. For example, 80 percent of all cancers are related to the use of tobacco products, to what we eat and drink, and to our exposure to radiation, asbestos, and some of the other cancer-causing agents. There’s not much you can do about your genes, but several other key risk factors are under your control. If you identify them and make the necessary changes in your lifestyle early enough, you can substantially decrease your chances of developing a malignancy. Here are some of the risk factors you can do something about:
1. Tobacco
Tobacco is the most preventable cause of mortality in this country. Regardless of whether you chew it, snuff it, smoke it, or inhale someone else’s exhaust, tobacco is a killer. In the United States, it is responsible for 85 to 90 percent of all lung cancers, and for one-third of all deaths related to other cancers. The magnitude of the risk depends on the number and kind of cigarettes you have smoked and for how long. A pack-a-day smoker is ten times more vulnerable than a non-smoker. It is never too late to quit. After you do, your cancer risk declines gradually each year.
2. Chronic alcohol abuse
This type of abuse can cause cancer of the liver, as well as of the mouth, throat, and larynx, especially in combination with tobacco. It may also raise the risk of breast cancer. If you are going to imbibe, limit yourself to the equivalent of two drinks a day – and stop smoking.
3. Diet
People who shun fruits and vegetables have roughly twice the incidence of most types of cancer – lung, larynx, oral cavity, stomach, colon, and rectum, bladder, pancreas, cervix, and ovary – than those with the highest intake. Yet only 9 percent of Americans heed the recommendations of the National Cancer Institute and the National Research Council to eat two servings of fruit and three portions of vegetables a day. Seventh-Day Adventists, who don’t drink or eat much meat but do consume a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, have the lowest incidence of cancer in the U.S. population. This protective effect is probably due to the antioxidants and folic acid present in fruits and vegetables, which neutralize damage to chromosomal DNA caused by oxygen-free radicals.
4. A high-fat diet
This type of diet is associated with cancer of the breast, uterus, and prostate. The guilty foods are eggs, fatty meat, high-fat salad dressings and cooking oils, and diary products such as whole milk, butter, and most cheeses.
Blueberries have a higher antioxidant capacity than any other fruit or vegetable. They are said to protect against cancer by virtue of their anthocyanins and other natural phytochemicals.
5. A high consumption of soy-based food
Soy-based food such as tofu, may also protect against cancer because of the genistein content. Genistein suppresses the production of proteins that cancer cells need in order to keep growing. In China and Japan, where people eat lots of soy, there is much less cancer of the breast, colon, and prostate than in this country. Since men with prostate cancer generally have lower blood levels of selenium than their normal counterparts, selenium supplements may protect against this malignancy.
6. Some supplements
Some supplements seem to protect against certain cancers. For instance, colon polyps and cancer do not recur as often in persons who regularly take multivitamins, calcium supplements, and vitamin E. A diet rich in fruits and vegetables is protective against cancer, presumably because of the beta-carotene content. So take your mother’s advice: Eat all the fruits and vegetables you can – and forget the pills.
7. Don’t have X-rays
Don’t have X-rays any more frequently than is absolutely necessary. I no longer take annual routine chest films on myself. Some dentists are too enthusiastic about X rays. Make sure you really need them before acquiescing.
10 Steps To Tackling Your Credit Card Debt Problem
First of all, you can take comfort in the fact that you are not the only one fighting credit card debt problems. There are hordes of people who have even worse credit card debt problems when compared to yours; all of them seeking an effective way to eliminate the credit card debt. So what is the solution to your credit card debt problem?
Well, the solution really is to smash the credit card debt with full force and eliminate it completely. Now how do you do that?
There are many ways in which you can solve your credit card debt problem. Different people suggest different ways of tackling it. However, here is a simple step by step account of what you can do to get rid of your credit card debt.
1. Take stock of the situation i.e. draw up a table with the following fields – Credit card name, balance, payment due day (the day of the month by which you are required to make payment of your credit card bill), APR, reward points earned, redemption offers applicable for your reward points balance, remarks.
2. Fill the table up with data from your various credit cards.
3. Check if any reward points that you may have accumulated can be used to make partial payments or cover any kind of fees or even if the points can be bartered for something you need.(spending less means preventing the credit card debt problem from getting worse).
4. If you have any available credit on any of your credit cards it would worth your time to call those credit card companies and check on the availability of lower interest rate balance transfers. If they offer reduced interest rate balance transfers, it would be wise to transfer any balance of a higher interest rate credit card.
5. You may also consider applying for another credit card (I know, I know, your trying to eliminate your credit card debt, not create more.) Hear me out first. If you can get a lower interest rate balance transfer credit card that you may be able to consolidate one or more of your credit cards into one, this would allow you to do two things: first you can eliminate at least one (hopefully more) of your higher interest rate cards. Second, it will cause your required monthly payment to be lower allowing you to pay a larger amount towards your principal, not just your interest.
6. First eliminate debt on the credit card contributing the most to your credit card debt problem i.e. highest APR (interest rate) and highest balance. Start with one. Pay the minimum required monthly payment on all the other credit card while applying the most money you can afford to the credit card first on your list to pay off. This will allow you to reduce the balance faster and to break the cycle of the never ending balance payoff.
7. Once you have eliminated the debt from one credit card, do yourself a favor and destroy it. In todays day and age it is almost a necessity to have a credit card, but you only need one and if you have to use it, you should pay the balance off completely every month.
8. Practice controlled and healthy spending habits (after all you are looking to get rid of credit card debt problem for good and not just temporarily.
9. Look for alternative means of adding to your income (more money means earlier termination of credit card debt.)
10. See your debt reduce with time and celebrate the day when you finally put an end to your credit card debt problem.
Remember,it is ultimately up to you to make a change in the way you use and percieve credit cards and credit card debt. You CAN take control of your financial future and put and end to credit card debt forever.
