Now is the perfect time to evaluate your financial position and come up with innovative ways to add revenue streams and generate cash. Here are five ways you might consider to improve your cash inflow: 1. Evaluate your current Company Assets Take a look at your assets, both fixed and human. Could you make slight pivots to create a new form of income? For instance, if you run a coffee… Read more
Everyone would like to become a better investor. People get into a twist trying this method and that only to abandon them for the next new thing. There’s an easier way, and it involves following a few simple suggestions. Stop Watching the Market and start Watching your Stocks Just because the market is frothy doesn’t mean your stock’s price is. Just because the market is sinking doesn’t mean your stock… Read more
As any accountant will advise, it’s important for business owners to keep their personal and business banking separate. Separating your business expenses will make your annual tax preparation much easier, and ensure you claim all your deductions. But it’s also important to protect your personal assets should your business find itself in financial trouble. Another excellent reason to have a business bank account comes down to professionalism. As a small… Read more
Have you had a potential investor turn away from your business for seemingly no reason? Investors don’t usually turn away from good opportunities so was there something that made your company or business plan unappealing? Here are six reason businesses makes themselves unattractive to investors. There’s no Proof of Concept You can find good ideas everywhere but only a few of those ideas will actually end up profitable for everyone… Read more
For many small business owners, the offer of low payment fees is a very attractive proposition. Bitcoin – a digital currency that allows low-cost peer to peer payments – offers an interesting alternative to traditional payment methods. When you buy or sell with bitcoins, fees are set by bitcoin users. Typically those fees are much lower than the 2-3% transaction fees incurred in a typical credit card transaction. Before you… Read more
It’s easy to believe that the key skill in giving a presentation is making sure you say the right thing, but studies have shown that 55% of your message comes from non-verbal cues and people remember more if they see something than if they just hear it. This article looks at the eight areas you need to focus on to make the most of that 55%. Your Natural Style Making… Read more
If you’re like most small business owners, there are never enough hours in the day to complete every task on your list. Often you’re faced with prioritizing what you need to do right now – deal with a customer, meet a deadline, attend an event – and the things you know you should do for the ongoing growth of your business. Scheduling time to attend to these business activities on… Read more
The recent statistics on employee theft is shocking. According to one US source, 75% of employees admit to having stolen at least once from their employer—and employee theft costs a company on average 7% of their annual revenues each year. As a business owner you may not be aware of the many ways employees can steal from you. Some common methods include: redirecting company checks to personal accounts and altering… Read more
Entrepreneurs want to have their hands on every aspect of their start-up. This is understandable, as many entrepreneurs come into their respective industries from a place of passion. Their passion will drive them to spend long nights at the office, working hard every hour of every day. Unknown to them, this kind of attitude can actually lead to some destructive outcomes. You must avoid these habits, despite the allure of… Read more
Many entrepreneurs believe that hard work and dogged determination are all it takes to build and sustain a successful business. But when you consider the pressures of running a company, it seems wise to add effective stress-management to the list. Left unchecked, stress can erode your passion and undermine performance – not to mention, take a serious toll on your health. Research compiled by Office Vibe reveals that over 70%… Read more
Business dashboards are a valuable business intelligence tool, offering an “at-a-glance” big picture view of a company’s performance. Some business owners use a dashboard to track KPIs relevant to just one aspect of their business, such as sales growth, marketing, or financial data. Others rely on an executive dashboard for an overview of data culled from various sources (e.g. their accounting software, CRM tools, and website analytics). The great advantage… Read more
As a business owner it’s important to take time away from work. But worrying about whether staff are meeting deadlines and suppliers are happy translates to more stress and less time enjoying your holiday. With a little staff communication and planning beforehand, you needn’t worry that your business won’t be able to cope in your absence. If you really can’t switch off from work mode or something urgent pops up,… Read more
The beginning of a new year is the perfect time to reflect on what’s working in your business, and to set some goals for the year ahead. As you kick back over the holidays, set aside some time to think about your recent achievements, and any current challenges. Think about your work style, too. If you’re like many small business owners, you may be guilty of bad habits that can… Read more
As another year winds down, it’s a good time to reflect on your recent business successes – and consider what you’d like to achieve in the coming twelve to fifteen months. These tips can help you with the process of making plans to help guide your business to greater success. Set Priorities Entrepreneurs are typically highly creative and optimistic; as a result, they often have difficulty narrowing down their ideas… Read more
Check out our brand new website! We’re really excited to launch our new website! We hope you like the fresh look. After a few months of planning and editing, we are really proud to reveal the results. The site features a crisp, new look, striking images, and photos of our team…so it’s safe to say we’ve improved the design all around. This site has been designed to make it easy… Read more
Want to avoid paying more than you should come tax time? Or a frantic last minute search for missing financial records? New business owners have a lot on their plate, and can easily lose track of an approaching tax deadline or financial data needed to submit their return. Organization is key when preparing for tax time. As is taking advantage of the many tools and resources out there to support… Read more
Offices are often thought of as relatively benign places, compared to more manual environments, such as factory floors or construction sites. But they hold many risks of their own to employees’ health and safety. Be sure of keeping your most valuable asset safe and well by ensuring you don’t overlook these seven common office-based risks. Lone Working Lone working is not just about manual operatives working in remote or isolated… Read more