Capital is a business' lifeblood. Sure, ambition and willpower to make it happen both play equal parts. But without money to fuel operations, a business cannot hope to establish a solid base. As a smart business owner, conserving capital spending is essential for continued operations. Below are 5 tools that will help you achieve that and more. Laptops Upfront, laptops cost less than their desktop counterparts. A decent laptop powerful enough to manage payrolls, invoices, spreadsheets, and … [Read more...]
Build your business credit in 4 steps
How good are you at getting other people’s money? To have a successful business you need to convince customers, vendors, investors and lenders to give you their money. The last group –serve as a lifeline for millions of businesses. According to the latest research from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, U.S. business debt outstanding stands at a record high of nearly $8 trillion. Just because there are trillions of dollars being lent to businesses doesn’t mean that it’s easy to get a … [Read more...]
Defining and measuring unit economics
Business models can get complicated. The path to growth and profitability isn’t necessarily a straight line. It’s common to change the target market, product or service offering, pricing strategy, cost model and anything else in an effort to boost revenues and profits. With so many changes taking place it’s possible to lose sight of a basic question: how profitable is your business model? You many know how to run a business smoothly but it won’t help if you are in the wrong business. The way … [Read more...]
Pricing complex sales
Pricing is one of the most challenging decisions that small business owners must make. It determines revenues and profitability; it communicates value; and ultimately is responsible for the success or failure of a business. Setting a price becomes even more difficult when the company in question is selling something complex that includes both a product and service component. Software that requires upfront integration and ongoing maintenance is a typical example. These complex sales if priced … [Read more...]
Small business budgeting
Small business budgets come in many formats, types and degrees of complexity. In most cases though they serve three purposes. The first purpose of a budget is to establish performance targets over a specified period of time. Usually a budget plans for revenues and expenditures on a monthly, quarterly, annual and multi-year basis. Company managers and employees can then devise action plans to achieve the targets provided by the budget. The second purpose of a budget is to measure … [Read more...]
Financial analysis and small business health
The financial health of a small business is one of the best indicators of its potential for long-term growth and success. The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago recently published the results of its Small Business Financial Health Analysis. The results show that business owners who are knowledgeable about business finance tend to have companies with greater revenues and profits, more employees and generally have more success. The first step towards improving small business financial literacy is … [Read more...]
Tax insight: IRS issues new rules on expensing and capitalizing property
Since 2003 the IRS has been working to revamp how businesses should account for money spent on buying, making, improving and repairing tangible property. The final regulations were announced in 2014 with an important update made in 2015. Why would such a seemingly arcane tax accounting topic take a decade to finalize? The changes affect over $17 trillion in tangible assets owned by U.S. businesses and may require accounting changes for virtually every company in the country. The new … [Read more...]
How a 1031 exchange works
1031 exchanges offer business owners and real estate investors a solution to a “good” problem. When you buy an asset like a warehouse, office building, rental apartment or piece of land, it will likely increase in value over time. When you sell it for a profit, there is usually a hefty tax bill that must also be paid. Those taxes eat into the money you earned on the transaction which in turn leaves you with less cash available to reinvest in a new property. To solve this problem, Congress passed … [Read more...]
Getting paid what you’re owed without breaking the law
Collecting from customers that can’t or won’t pay you is one of the trickiest parts of running a small business. If you are too lenient you could go bankrupt; if you are too strict you could turn away good customers that just need a little flexibility; if you are too aggressive you could find yourself being sued by a Federal Agency or a State Attorney General. This last mistake – being too aggressive – could have dire consequences for your business. Both Federal and State government agencies … [Read more...]
Margin Makeover for 2015
How profitable is your business? How do your profits compare to other companies in your industry? These are two questions that small business owners need to consider very carefully before jumping into 2015. Profitability can be measured in different ways but the basic measure is “net profit” which is calculated by subtracting all of your expenses including interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization from your revenues. Sageworks, a leading provider of risk management solutions to … [Read more...]
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