Businessmortgages

Nucor’s business is not new and sexy. In fact it is as rust belt as it comes: melt down scrap steel to make new steel. What’s amazing about Nucor is not the business they are in but their results.

How does 387% return to shareholders over the past five years sound? That’s better than Amazon, Starbucks and eBay. Since the 1980’s it has grown into the largest steel company in the U.S. In 2005 it did 12.7 billion in sales, up from 4.6 billion in 2000. Income was 1.3 billion up from 311 million in 2000.

Their secret? This radical insight from their legendary leader F. Kenneth Iverson: employees, even hourly clock-punchers, will make an extraordinary effort if you reward them richly, treat them with respect, and give them real power. Sounds like something we in the service industry might be able to learn from.

From a recent article by BusinessWeek:

“At Nucor the art of motivation is about an unblinking focus on the people on the front line of the business. It’s about talking to them, listening to them, taking a risk on their ideas, and accepting the occasional failure.”

Lot’s of people talk about empowering employees and paying for performance, at Nucor it’s not just talk. Base hourly pay at Nucor is around 10 an hour compared to other companies that average 16 to 21. But a bonus tied to the production of defect-free steel made by the worker’s shift can triple the average to 30 at Nucor. Bad work is also penalized. If a bad batch is caught before it leaves the plant the shift loses the bonus on that batch. If the defect doesn’t get caught till it gets to the customer, they lose three times that amount.

Thinking this plan will only work with certain employees? Nucor has applied it at several acquired sites with tremendous success. They don’t force new employees to switch immediately to their new pay system, they just start posting what the employee would have made. It doesn’t take long for employees to demand the switch even as production at the facilities goes up.

That’s just one side of how Nucor runs its business. They also listen and take risks on employee suggestions, this is not a command and control kind of place. This is a place where people are passionately working together, being rewarded for their successes and feeling the responsibilities of failure. Natural consequences.

Managers are in the same compensation boat. The shift, plant, or company does well and they get bonuses to compensate for their lower than industry standard salary. If things don’t go well then they feel the pinch.

It all makes sense and this company is certainly has the Midas touch.

It seems that most successful businesses these days have web sites, even businesses that service only certain geographic areas. On the web, where the market place is global, localized businesses can be at a great disadvantage.

A Local Business Web Site Example

Lets use the example of a car cleaning businesses. The business only cleans cars in a specific city, yet wants to use their web site to create more business. Time and money is invested in marketing the site in the search engines, paying particular attention to marketing the site for the specific geographic region the service provider covers. Nonetheless, many visitors from around the globe are likely to stumble across the site if it is well marketed.

Offer Non-Geographic Specific Products and Services

If a local business does not offer some sort of product or service that is available to the global market, than these web visits are wasted. The solution is simple. Local businesses that expend effort marketing their web site should also consider offering additional products or services that can be purchased by the global market.

Product Options

Options for our example – a car cleaning service – could include T-shirts, hats, cleaning cloths, wax andor soap. Even just T-shirts could be an additional source of revenue, whereas the seller benefits not just from the direct sale, but the advertising the wearer of the shirt will provide.

Drop Shipping Makes Offering Products Easy

To the busy business owner, offering additional products for the sake of web sales may seem like an extra burden rather than a hidden source of revenue. Yet adding products to your web site can be very easy. By using a drop-shipper, inventory is not required. Services such as Caf Press allow products to be made as they are ordered.

Affiliate Systems

Also, if the site owner does not wish to deal with inventory and stocking products, affiliate systems can be used for revenue. Affiliate systems allow site owners to signup for revenue sharing programs with other companies. An affiliate program allows site owners to offer the products or services of other companies while getting a commission on sales generated from the site owners site.

In short, if you run a business that operates on a local basis only, and also maintain a web site, it may be well worth your while to expand to the global market by adding products or services that can be sold around the world.

Are your clients taking up to 60 days to pay their invoices? This is a very common situation and a significant cause of stress to many business owners. Unfortunately, having a profitable business does not necessarily mean that you have a reliable cash flow. Quite the opposite, many times a business may have great profits and a very unreliable cash flow.

How can this be? Simple. Your clients are paying you in 60 days, but you need to pay employees every week, rent and suppliers. Although the numbers may work in the long term, in the short term you are left with very little cash. This is unless you have a lot of money in the bank to cover the deficits.

But, what do you do if you are new, growing or just dont have a lot of funds in the bank? Get a business loan? Unlikely. Business loans are hard to get. A better option would be to use invoice discounting. Invoice discounting is a form of financing that is not offered by a bank its offered by a factoring company.

Invoice discounting, as it name implies, involves selling your invoices for immediate cash, at a small discount. Its value proposition is very simple. Are you willing discount between 1.5% to 6% from your invoices to get paid now? Consider that many business owners offer a 2% discount to businesses that pay within 10 days. So, invoice discounting offers a similar proposition.

Of course, invoice discounting (or invoice factoring as it is also called) is not for every business. It works best when your profit margins are above 15% and if you use the accelerated funds to pay for business expenses or to pursue new business opportunities.

Factoring companies always purchase your invoices in two installments. The first installment, referred to as the advance, covers up to 85% of the invoice. The remaining 15% (less the discount) is rebated once the customer actually pays the invoice.

Invoice discounting is easy to obtain and can be set up in days. The biggest qualification requirement is to have invoices from reliable clients. So, if you are sitting on a whole bunch of slow paying invoices, be sure to consider invoice discounting.

If you were to ask any www.businessmarketingagency.comInternet business owner about how well organized their operations are, they’ll more than likely say, Possibly not.

In fact, many organizations throw up an expensive website using all the latest bells and whistles, only to find it a generally unsatisfying experience. Apart from the technical versus sales and www.businessmarketingagency.commarketing issues of the website itself, many organizations, both in terms of appropriate behaviors, as well as of effective organizational designs has been sadly neglected by many established site owners.
You may have a business site with dedicated Web staff, yet it is poorly integrated within your parent organization and tasked with non-defined roles.
A simple question needs to be asked, Do you have a networking group directed by a chief Web officer and composed of dedicated staff for each business function? If not, then depending upon your organizations’ size and abilities, you’ll need to implement such a group or outsource those functions.
Typically, many conventional site owners have acquired organizational habits that are not well aligned to the needs of www.businessmarketingagency.cominternet marketing. It should be noted there are various undesirable traits or behaviors found in many organizations that must be guarded against.

You might find that increasing complexity in your company has resulted in inflexibility and slow decision making processes. There is also a tendency towards internal conflict and stratification, as well as a leadership that would tend to emphasize capital investment as a solution to all problems.

The movement towards networking with a specific group, which characterizes a typical consumer goods business, will carry with it limited coordination among your departments and divisions resulting in a weakened sense of market trends and increased dissatisfaction.

These features are in direct conflict with what you should know about the cultural characteristics of pure successful ecommerce businesses. An Internet business is predominantly a flat organization with quick decision making, where risk taking is encouraged and failure is merely an education.

Employees may tend to work long hours at the office by choice and are very self disciplined. Typically, such companies use guiding principles rather than procedures and tend to lead by example. When these two types of cultural environments are brought together, unexpected and perhaps dysfunctional behaviors must be expected to emerge.
Given the cultural and organizational differences between new and old ecommerce businesses, the way in which you, as an established site owner should set up and manage Internet operations, is therefore extremely important.

One factor to consider, is that small Internet businesses are more flexible organizationally. You should consider that ecommerce has provided greater electronic quality for smaller businesses in relation to their larger competitors.

You will need an increased willingness to seek appropriate alliances and partnerships, plus consider organizational designs, company spin-offs, etc., that will provide convergence to the integrated business model required to overcome these mismatches in culture and outlook.

The many advantages derived from the Internet must be exploited both within and between existing sectors of your offline business. With the ways in which networked organizations are evolving, it should be realized that only those retaining an Internet culture, in a parallel or networking group style of operation, closely identifies with the ecommerce aspects of a business’overall objectives will become more successful.

Following the Thai governments proposals to amend the Foreign Business Act which restricts the rights of foreigners to own or operate certain businesses in Thailand, CB Richard Ellis Thailand has been carefully monitoring the Thai residential, resort and office markets to judge the market’s actual response from news of the proposals to amend the law on foreign businesses and other recent events.

CB Richard Ellis has also looked carefully at the real effect of the current proposals in conjunction with major law firms and has considered the psychological effect and the perception of foreign businesses in Thailand and foreign purchasers of Thai property. The danger of these proposals is that they may be seen as a rejection of foreign investments with large potential losses for both the real estate and construction sectors of the economy and what might been seen as poor public relations or presentation of Thailand internationally.

According to the CB Richard Ellis Thailand Managing Director, Ms. Aliwassa Pathnadabutr, Our first advice to all clients is that these proposals are not yet law. Secondly, detailed reading of the proposals shows them not to be as harsh as the headlines have presented them. Most businesses that will be redefined as foreign will be, by virtue of list three, largely unaffected and allowed to continue with time to amend their structure if necessary. Therefore, most office tenants should not be affected although demand from incoming tenants may well be reduced.

There is strong overseas demand for luxury real estate, both condominiums in Bangkok and resort properties in the price range of US 350,000 and above. There is also strong demand in the mid range market with prices of US 100,000 and above for holiday and retirement homes in destinations like Pattaya, Hua Hin and Phuket. It would be a major loss for the Thai economy to lose this substantial and long term sustainable market to other tropical countries as noted by Ms. Aliwassa.

In conjunction with the government proposal to restrict nominee-structured companies from owning landed property, CB Richard Ellis would like to see positive steps to support the real estate industry such as 90 year leases for villas and an increase in the ratio of foreign buyers in condominiums from 49. Properties such as Laguna Phuket have never had significant local demand but are targeted specifically at foreign buyers, such developments are major contributors to foreign revenue inflow, the construction industry and local economies. Foreigners buying such properties contribute income not just on purchase, but continuously over the life of the properties through the purchase of local services.

For any current owner of a house or villa with a nominee structure, CB Richard Ellis advises owners to monitor the proposals and seek expert legal advice on how to amend the companys structure and comply with any changes. The proposals allow a period of one year to amend or change a companys status. If the Government did move on extending leases to foreigners to 90 years, this would be an obvious route for such villa owners to convert to leasehold.

Existing foreign owners and prospective buyers of Thai real estate should not panic or abandon their interest in purchase. They should focus on foreign condominiums quota and leasehold properties developed by well known and established companies. For example, CB Richard Ellis is proceeding with two overseas sales campaigns with the launch of Condominiums at The Cove in Krabi which will launch sales in late January in Stockholm, Sweden and in February the launch of Leasehold Pool Villas at the Shangri La Resort and Spa, a west coast Phuket beach project.

Despite recent events, there is still sustained foreign interest in Thai real estate. In confirmation of this, CB Richard Ellis Thailand points to sale bookings over Christmas and the first week of the New Year on multi million pound leasehold villas in Phuket and continued condominium sales in Bangkok and Pattaya.

We hope current uncertainties are quickly and professionally resolved so foreign investors know how to safely invest in Thai property. CB Richard Ellis very much hopes for and recommends longer 90 year leases and extended condominium ownership quotas. We believe, with confidence maintained, the Thai real estate market will continue to perform well and to rise on the back of sustained demand. Thailand is still a good real estate buy and foreigners preferred choice over other tropical countries, concluded Ms. Aliwassa.

I get asked that question a lot. In fact, after how do I start a business? its probably the most asked question by new clients. I decided the best way to describe why you might decide to write a business plan is to tell you a few stories about a client of mine. The name and business are fictional. Were going to call him David and hes going to have a mechanic shop. The stories Im going to tell you over the next few months are a combination of things that have happened to me and to some of my clients.

Davids smart. Hes got a memory like a steel trap. And hes ambitious. He wants to start a small mechanic shop with the inheritance his dad left him, and hes been very busy trying to get it started. But hes also young and in a bit of a hurry. The way he sees it, he doesnt need a business plan and anytime hes asked about it he just taps his head and says, I dont need one. Ive got it all up here. Besides, he likes freedom. Hes a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of guy. He doesnt want to be tied to what some piece of paper says.

His mother-in-law, Ellen just shakes her head. Shes owned a bookkeeping service for the last twenty years, which she started because she wanted to be able to stay home when her kids were small. But David thinks, of course shed see it that way. Shes a bean counter and everyone knows how they are about details. Besides, hes already let her talk him into incorporating his business. The way he saw it, he didnt need to waste his money on it, but it was done. No way was he going to waste any more money on getting a business plan.

A few weeks later, David opened his shop for business. What a day that was. Hed been too excited to sleep the night before, and it ended up being an awfully long day because he didnt have any customers. Not a single one. Hed spent the day cleaning the shop and organizing his tools and sometimes just staring at the phone, trying to will it to ring. Oh well, he thought, what can I expect? The shops brand new and nobody knows about it. Someone will call tomorrow. By the end of the week, with no calls except from friends and family (who he was beginning to suspect his mother-in-law had told to call), he was starting to worry. He was also starting to run out of cash.

He barely scraped together the cash for his lease at the end of the sixth month. He didnt think owning a business would be this expensive. Besides, hed figured hed have lots of customers by now, but the truth of it was he didnt have enough to keep him busy for even half a day. David decided hed better go see his banker. It shouldnt be too be much of a problem to get the money, he figured. He had a good credit rating.

David sat down and got right down to business. He didnt need much money. He figured 10,000 should do it. Sounds good, Shaun said when he was done talking. Lets take a look at your business plan. And when he said, Oh I dont have one. Ive got it all up here, she smiled and said, We need to have one before we can proceed with a loan. Come back and see me when you do.

As much as he hated to do it, he knew he had to borrow some money from someone. When none of his friends could help him beyond a few hundred pounds, he approached his mother-in-law. Well, she said, I can do that for you, but I have one condition. I want to give me half an hour of your time to listen to why I think you need a business plan. David agreed. He was getting desperate.

Heres what she said:

Almost half of small business startups fail in the first year.

The main reasons they fail is because they lack management, lack
planning, have insufficient financing and lack marketing.

You can address all those reasons with a business plan:

oBusiness plans help with lack of management with financial analysis, guide
your decision-making, and outlining specific goals.

oBusiness plans help with lack of planning by outlining the means to meet
specific goals.

oBusiness plans help with insufficient financing because financial institutions
and private investors wont lend you any money without one.

oComplete business plans include a marketing plan addressing lack of
marketing.

There are other reasons for writing a business plan:

oBusiness plans help you monitor your progress.

oBusiness plans give you something to compare your end of period results
with.

oBusiness plans help identify weak areas where you can improve.

oBusiness plans help you avoid making the same mistake over and over
again.

oBusiness plans help keep you on track.

oA good business plan includes a feasibility study, so you should know
before you start whether your business can succeed.

oMany self-help books proclaim goals are more easily met if theyre written
so business plans help you identify and reach your goals.

David was convinced. He accepted his mother-in-laws offer to help him write his business plan. After it was done, he went back to the bank and got his loan.

So, how is Davids business doing? Im not going to tell you anything today beyond that hes still in business, but I will tell you more, I promise. Were going to use Davids business as a case study with more articles about him every month. Stay tuned for more stories about Davids business and find out how hes doing.

There are many types of symbols. Money from investors, banks or financial organisations is one such kind of symbols.

A successful Business Plan (=a successful manipulation of symbols) is one which brings in its wake the receipt of credits (money, another kind of symbol). What are the rules of manipulating symbols? In our example, what are the properties of a successful Business Plan?

(1) That it is closely linked to reality. The symbol system must map out reality in an isomorphic manner. We must be able to identify reality the minute we see the symbols arranged.

If we react to a Business Plan with incredulity (”It is too good to be true” or “some of the assumptions are non realistic”) – then this condition is not met and the Business Plan is a failure.

(2) That it rearranges old, familiar data into new, emergent, patterns.

The symbol manipulation must bring to the world some contribution to the sphere of knowledge (very much as a doctoral dissertation should).

When faced with a Business Plan, for instance, we must respond with a modicum of awe and fascination (”That’s right! – I never thought of it” or “(arranged) This way it makes sense”).

(3) That all the symbols are internally consistent. The demand of external consistency (compatibility with the real world, a realistic representation system) was stipulated above. This is a different one: all symbols must live in peace with one another, the system must be coherent.

In the example of the Business Plan:

Reactions such as: “This assumption number projection defies or contradicts the other” indicate the lack of internal consistency and the certain failure to obtain money (=to manipulate the corresponding symbols).

(4) Another demand is transparency: all the information should be available at any given time. When the symbol system is opaque – when data are missing, or, worse, hidden – the manipulation will fail.

In our example: if the applicant refuses to denude himself, to expose his most intimate parts, his vulnerabilities as well as his strong points – then he is not likely to get financing. The accounting system in Macedonia – albeit gradually revised – is a prime example of concealment in a placewhere exposition should have prevailed.

(5) The fifth requirement is universality. Symbol systems are species of languages. The language should be understood by all – in an unambiguous manner. A common terminology, a dictionary, should be available to both manipulator and manipulated.

Clear signs of the failure of a Business Plan to manipulate would be remarks like: “Why is he using this strange method for calculation?”, “Why did he fail to calculate the cost of financing?” and even: “What does this term mean and what does he mean by using it?”

(6) The symbol system must be comprehensive. It cannot exclude certain symbols arbitrarily. It cannot ignore the existence of competing meanings, double entendres, ambiguities. It must engulf all possible interpretations and absolutely ALL the symbols available to the system.

Let us return to the Business Plan:

A Business Plan must incorporate all the data available – and all the known techniques to process them. It can safely establish a hierarchy of priorities and of preferences – but it must present all the possibilities and only then make a selection while giving good reasons for doing so.

(7) The symbol system must have links to other, relevant, symbol systems. These links can be both formal and informal (implied, by way of mental association, or by way of explicit reference or incorporation).

Coming back to the Business Plan:

There is no point in devising a Business Plan which will ignore geopolitical macro-economic and marketing contexts. Is the region safe for investments?

What are the prevailing laws and regulations in the territory and how likely are they to be changed? What is the competition and how can it be neutralized or co – opted? These are all external variables, external symbol systems. Some of them are closely and formally linked to the business at hand (Laws, customs tariffs, taxes, for instance). Some are informally linked to it: substitute products, emerging technologies, ethical and environmental considerations. The Business Plan is supposed to resonate within the mind of the reader and to elicit the reaction: “How very true!!!”

(8) The symbol system must have a discernible hierarchy. There are – and have been – efforts to invent and to use non-hierarchical symbol systems. They all failed and resulted in the establishment of a formal, or an informal, hierarchy. The professional term is “Utility Functions”. This is not a theoretical demand. Utility functions dictate most of the investment decisions in today’s complex financial markets.

The author(s) of the Business Plan must clearly state what he wants and what he wants most, what is an absolute sine qua non and what would be nice to have. He must fix and detail his preferences, priorities, needs and requirements. If he were to attach equal weight to all the parts of the Business Plan, his message will confuse those who are trying to decode it and they will deny his application.

(9) The symbol system must be seen to serve a (useful) purpose and it must demonstrate an effort at being successful. It must, therefore, be direct, understandable, clear and it must contain lists of demands and wishes (all of them prioritized, as we have mentioned).

When a computer faces a few tasks simultaneously – it prioritizes them and allocates its resources in strict compliance with this list of priorities.

A computer is the physical embodiment of a symbol system – and so is a bank doling out credit. The same principles apply to the human organism.

All natural (and most human) systems are goal-oriented.

(10) The last – but by no means the least – requirement is that the symbol system must be interfaced with human beings. There is not much point in a having a computer without a screen, or a bank without clients, or a Business Plan without someone to review it. We must always – when manipulating symbol systems – bear in mind the “end user” and be “user friendly” to him. There is no such thing as a bank, a firm, or even a country. At the end of the line, there are humans, like me and you.

To manipulate them into providing credits, we must motivate them into doing so. We must appeal to their emotions and senses: our symbol system (=presentation, Business Plan) must be aesthetic, powerful, convincing, appealing, resonating, fascinating, interesting. All these are irrational (or, at least, non-cognitive) reactions.

We must appeal to their cognition. Our symbol system must be rational, logical, hierarchical, not far fetched, true, consistent, internally and externally. All this must lead to motor motivation: the hand that signs the check given to us should not shake.

THE PROBLEM, THEREFORE, IS NOT WHERE TO GO, NOT EVEN WHEN TO GO IN ORDER TO OBTAIN CREDITS.

THE ISSUE IS HOW TO COMMUNICATE (=to manipulate symbols) IN ORDER TO MOTIVATE.

Using this theory of the manipulation of symbols we can differentiate three kinds of financing organizations:

(1) Those who deal with non-quantifiable symbols. The World Bank, for one, when it evaluates business propositions, employs criteriawhich cannot be quantified (how does one quantify the contribution to regional stability or the increase in democracy and the improvement in human rights records?).

(2) Those who deal with semi-quantifiable symbols. Organizations such as the IFC or the EBRD employ sound – quantitative – business and financial criteria in their decision making processes. But were they totally business oriented, they would probably not have made many of the investments that they are making and in the geographical parts of the world that they are making them.

(3) And there are those classical financing organizations which deal exclusively with quantifiable, measurable variables. Most of us come across this type of financing institutions: commercial banks, private firms, etc.

Whatever the kind of financial institution, we must never forget:

We are dealing with humans who are influenced mostly by the manipulation of symbol systems. Abiding by the aforementioned rules would guarantee success in obtaining funding. Making the right decision on the national level – would catapult a country into the 21st century without having first to re-visit the twentieth.

Writing a Business Plan can be a daunting task. You have so many ideas floating around in your head that it can be difficult to capture them all in a logical format. However, committing time to writing an effective Plan can help improve your chances of success. In this article I will be giving you some tips on how to write a killer Business Plan!

Tip 1 Understand the Need for a Plan

Without a clear strategy and long term objectives you may be reducing your chances of success and so its important to commit time to plan ahead. Having put in time, energy and resources to come up with the ideas, why spoil it all by not having a structured plan for the future? The benefits of business planning cannot be underestimated. There are some potentially business-changing reasons to prepare a Business Plan. You must view planning as a crucial investment of your time, which could mean the difference between success and failure.

Tip 2 Dont Go It Alone, Ask For Help

Picture this. You’ve never written a Business Plan before; you sit down at your table and end up staring at a blank piece of paper for 3 hours! Then, another 3 hours later, all you have is a bin full of scrap paper. However, in order to help you put a plan together there are a variety of sources of help you can tap into:

Professional advisers

Business colleagues

Advice agencies

Your staff

Books (see our free e-book offer at the end of this article)

Tip 3 Follow a Framework

Having a framework or outline to follow can make the task of writing a Business Plan so much easier. The 3 parts to your Plan are:

Where you are now

Where you intend to be

How you are going to get there

This is your framework which will guide both you and the reader through your business and your idea.

Tip 4 Tell the Reader Where You Are Now

In your first section you want to paint a picture of where your business is now. These are the main areas to cover:

Business history

Location and premises

Your product or service

Your market

Your customers

Your competition

Your staff

Equipment

Provide an insight into each part of your business so that the reader of your Plan knows how the business looks now. Obviously if you are just starting up, give an idea of how you see these parts of your business once you get going.

Tip 5 Tell the Reader Where You Intend To Be

Having given an overview of your business, the next step is to tell them where you want to be. The main points to cover are:

Your objectives and goals

State what you want from the reader a loan or overdraft for example

Explain why you need and what it will be used for

Tip 6 Tell the Reader How You Are Going To Get There

Its all very well promoting your idea and business but the important point to put over is how you are going to get there. Here are the key points to cover:

Marketing plan

Additional resources needed to meet your objectives and goals

Your contribution in terms of cash or equipment

Security you can offer to support a request for finance

Profit and loss and cash flow forecast to show that you plan to make money and that you can pay back the loan

Tip 7 Provide Some Supporting Information

Your Plan will have contained a lot of information, so it is helpful to include supporting documentation to provide more background. Placing these additional items as an appendix ensures that the flow of the Plan has not been affected by additional information.

What sort of items could you include?

Letter of support from your Accountant

Confirmation of pending orders from customers

If you are purchasing a property, you could include the sales particulars

Independent industry surveys showing that your sector is doing well

If you are buying machinery, include quotations

If you business main asset is you, include your CV!

Tip 8 Ask Someone to Review It

When you are totally immersed in a task you can easily miss obvious mistakes. Ask someone to review your Plan to ensure there are no spelling or grammatical errors dont rely on Spell Check! Does it all make sense? Have you been logical in your arguments?

Tip 9 Get the Presentation Right

After having spent a lot of time and effort on the content you dont want to spoil it all with poor presentation! Here are some tips:

Get the Plan typed; it will make it look more professional

Make sure all the papers are clean and that there are no dirt marks or coffee stains! Buy some good quality paper

Purchase a classy folder or binder to put your Plan in (paper clips or staples may not portray the right image!)

dont forget to include all your contact details

Tip 10 Deliver Your Plan to the Reader in Time

Once you are satisfied that your Plan is a good representation of your business you can post it but ideally you should deliver it, at least you know it has got there! Prior to a formal interview (if your aim is to obtain finance) you need to give the Manager time to read your plan. Ask to make an appointment with him in 3 days so he has time to read it.
Enclose a covering letter saying that you have made an appointment and your Plan is attached for him to review and to prepare any questions.

All that remains for you to do is to turn up at the agreed time and present your case!

As you start a business, you’ll be paying out money left and right for various fees and supplies needed to get things going. If you’re expanding your business, you’ll most likely be in the same situation. One of the best ways to handle expenses for your business, whether they are start up costs or ongoing incidentals that occur, is to obtain a business credit card. With a business credit card, you’ll have an organized reporting of expenses in addition to a quick and easy way to pay for your purchases.

Choosing the best business credit card takes a little more research than finding one for your personal use, but the time spent educating yourself on credit limits, interest rates and repayment options will pay off in the long run.

Corporate Credit Card or Business Credit Card?

A corporate credit card has no interest rate, but it does require either a monthly or annual fee to keep the card. It’s a good idea to find a corporate charge card that offers a single bill for all the charge cards on the account, as this will save you time and expense of writing multiple checks to pay for the charges. Just be sure that the employees who have access to the cards are using them for business purposes only- and if there is any question about the honesty of your employees, you may want to get itemized listings for each card so you can track each person’s usage on a monthly basis.

A business credit card is not all that different from a personal credit card. Business credit cards generally have a credit limit, and minimum monthly payments to pay. When lenders are deciding whether or not to extend a business credit to a company, they will look at the business owner’s credit as well as anyone else’s credit who will have permission to use the account.

Evaluating Interest Rates

If you decide to go with a business credit card over a corporate card, you’ll want to pay close attention to the interest rates of any cards you are considering. While promotional rates that scream 0% APR sound wonderful, don’t forget to check into what that rate will change to once the promotional period has ended. A 0% interest for six months that later changes to 29% is not as good as a card that offers an always low interest rate of 8% or so. Your other possibility is to obtain a card with an introductory offer, and before the time period ends, transfer your balance to a new credit card with a 0% introductory offer. It all depends on whether or not you want to be bothered with the constant applying and transferring of funds.

If you’ve decided to use a corporate credit card, look for a card with a monthly or annual fee that is reasonable in comparison to the amount of spending you believe you will be doing with the card. Also find out what services the card includes, sometimes paying a higher annual fee is worth the money in return for having discounts at office supply stores or airlines.

Consider Rewards Programs

Many business credit cards (and corporate cards for that matter), offer rewards programs for using their card. Do you do alot of traveling for your business? It would make sense for you to look into credit cards that offer rewards in the form of airline miles, discounted airfare, travel accident insurance, or car rentals. Do you tend to purchase supplies from a specific vendor on a regular basis? There are rewards programs that earn you points or cash back for purchases made at specific locations, and this makes sense for businesses who make repeat purchases from that location. Why not be rewarded for spending you have to do anyway?

Pick a Card, NOT Any Card

Choosing a credit card for business use is not a decision to take lightly, as the card will be a major factor in the amount of money you spend for your purchases, the ease in which you can track your business expenses, and the potential for earning free items or cash back.

How to Build a Print Business Without Owning A Print Shop

You can own a legitimate business and make top pounds by becoming a print broker or print specialist. This is a person who sells on behalf of an actual printer or a middle man who locates and serves customers. Print brokers are independent, as they’re not directly employed by the printing companies they represent. Your number one arsenal to being successful as a print broker is customer service. See, you will need repeat customers to grow and build up your business even greater than any single printer who prints for you.

Look at it as printers working for you at their various locations. You hire a printer to print what your customers request, e.g. booklets, catalogs, brochures, business cards, flyers, etc. You may want to focus on specific items as there are so many different products out there to print. With the power of the internet, now you can hire a printer anywhere and sell to customers everywhere.

Ok, here are the basics for becoming a Print Broker:

1.Set up Shop
You will need to set up an office area to operate from. It should include a phone, fax, computer, and a file cabinet. Keep your work area as detailed as possible, this will keep you mind clear and allow you to be on top of your business. Make sure you have a good answering machine to take messages when you are not in office. You can use your same phone line for fax if you cant afford a fax line right now.

2.Find Printers who are willing to sell to you at Wholesale Prices
The easiest way to find these printers may be to search your local phone directory or just search the internet. Call them up and ask if they have a print broker program or if they would be willing to sell their print services to you at a wholesale price it must be at a 15% discount or more. Most printers who already have a print broker program will have a contract ready for you to sign.

3.Choose the products that you are going to offer for printing and set your own prices.
The most popular products that businesses use are things like business cards, letterheads, envelopes, brochures, flyers, presentation folders, labels, inserts, postcards, etc. You could even get into printing promotional items like bags and pens, but thats a whole new area that you could explore. Remember I told you that customer service will be your number one arsenal in this business. So you dont have to marginalize your profits, just stress value and offer customer service second to none.

4.Promote your Print Broker Business
(a)Print and distribute business cards, flyers and postcards to places that people visit frequently (like restaurants, barber shop and salons, clubs etc.).
(b)Mail postcards to new businesses you can get the new business listings at your local county court house or search online
(c)Word of mouth tell everyone you know about your new business venture, friends and families. Give them one of your business cards.
(d)Website put your website address on everything you use like business cards etc. You can get good advice on how to promote your website at http:www.AboutCityBusiness.com

5.Maintain and keep in touch with your customer base
One of the most effective methods that will build your business is word of mouth when your satisfied customers tell others about you. So you will want to send your customers holiday cards, specials by mail or e-mail, call them by phone or whatever it takes to remind them about your great service. You could also invite your top customers out for lunch.

Its not unheard of to make 5000 to 20,000 pounds a month just being the middle man or woman. Just remember that you must be dedicated and have a willingness to act. Read, keep up to date with trends and increase your marketing skills.