How To Make Your Business Survive In The 21st Century Market

HOW TO MAKE YOUR BUSINESS SURVIVE IN THE 21st Century MARKET


You may be in Mail Order, Direct Mail, an Internet Business or you may be a local merchant with 150 employees or more; whichever, however or whatever, you've got to know how to keep your business alive during economic recessions. Any time the cash flow in a business, large or small, starts to tighten up - the money management of that business has to be on the ball.

Some of the things you can do and should do, include protecting yourself from expenditures made on sudden impulse. We've all bought things or services we really didn't need, simply because we were in the mood, or perhaps due to the flamboyancy of the advertising, or even because of the persuasiveness of the sales person. Then we sort of "wake up" a couple of days later and find that we've committed business funds to hundreds of dollars for an item or service that's not really essential to the success of our own business.

If you're incorporated, you can eliminate these "impulse purchases" by including within your by-laws a clause that states: "all purchasing decisions over a certain amount are contingent upon approval by the board of directors." This will give you a chance to consider any "impulse purchases" a second time after you've had a chance to think about the need for your purchase.

If you're business is a partnership, you can tell whoever it is that attempts to sell you something, that all purchase decisions are contingent upon the approval of a third party. In reality, the third party can be your partner, one of your department heads or even one of your suppliers.

If your business is a sole proprietorship, you don't have much to really worry about because as an individual you have three days to think about your purchase, and then to nullify that purchase if you think you really don't need it or can't afford it.

Especially in times of emergency, be sure that you don't "short-change" yourself on professional services.

Anytime you commit yourself and move full-speed ahead without fully investigating all the angles, and preparing yourself for all the contingencies that may arise, you're skating on thin ice. Regardless of the costs involved, it always pays off in the long run to seek out the advice or experienced professionals before embarking on a plan that could ruin you.

As an example, an experienced business consultant can fill you in on the 1244 stock or Sub-Chapter S advantages. A very simple process, but one with tremendous monetary benefits to businesses.

The 1244 status encourages investors to put equity capital into your business because in the event of a loss, amounts up to the entire sum of the investment can be written off in the current year. Without the "1244" classification, any losses would have to be spread over several years, and this of course, would severely lessen the attractiveness of your company's stock. Any business owner who has not filed as a 1244 corporation, has in effect, but himself off from 90-percent of his prospective investors.

Particularly when sales are down, you must be "hard-nosed" with people trying to sell you luxuries for your business. When your business is booming, you undoubtedly spend more time allowing different sales people to show you new models of equipment or a new line of better-looking supplies, but when your business is down, skip the entertaining frills and concentrate on the basics. Great care, however, must be taken to maintain courtesy and allow these sellers to consider you a "friend," and call back at another time.

Whoever maintains your company's books should reflect your way of thinking, and generate information according to your policies. Thus, you should hire an outside accountant or accounting firm to figure your return on your investment, as well as the turnover on your accounts receivable and your inventory. Such an audit or survey should focus in depth on any or every item within your financial statement that merits special attention. In this way, you'll probably uncover any potential financial problems before they arise.

Many small companies set up advisory boards or outside professional people. These are sometimes known as Power Circles, and once in place, the business always benefits, especially in times of short operating capital. Such an advisory board or power circle should include an attorney, a certified public accountant, civic club leaders, owner/managers or businesses similar to yours, and retired executives. Setting up such an advisory board of directors is really quite easy because most people you ask will be honored to serve.

Once your board is set up, you should meet about once a month and present material for review. Each meeting should be a discussion of your business problems and an input from your advisors relative to possible solutions.

These members of your board of advisors should offer you advice as well as alternatives, and provide you with objectivity. No formal decisions need to be made either at your board meetings nor as a result of them, but you should be able to gain a great deal from the suggestions you hear.

It should be that most of your customers have the money to pay at least some of the money they owe you, immediately. To keep them current and the number of accounts receivable in your files to a minimum, you should call them on the phone and ask for some kind of explanation why they're falling behind. If you develop such a habit as a standard part of your operating procedure, you'll find your invoices will magically be drawn to the front of their piles of bills to pay. Do not be hesitant nor too much of a "nice guy" when it comes to collecting money.

Something else that's a very good business practice, but which hew business owners do is to methodically build a good credit rating with their local banks. Particularly when you have a good cash flow, you should borrow $100 to $1,00 from your banks every 90-days or so. Simply borrow the money - place it in an interest-bearing account - and then pay it all back at least a month or so before it's due. By doing this, you'll increase the borrowing power of your signature, and strengthen your ability to obtain needed financing on short notice. This is a kind of business leverage that will be of great value to you if or whenever your cash position becomes desperate.

By all means, you should join your industry's local and national trade associations. Most of these organizations have a wealth of information available - everything from details on your competitors, to average industry sales figures, to new products, services and trends.

If they give you a membership certificate or wall plaque, you should display these conspicuously on your office wall. You customers like to see such "seals of approval" and place additional confidence in your business when they see them.

Still another thing often overlooked - if at all possible, you should have your spouse work in the business with you at least 3 to 4 weeks per year. The important thing is that if, for any reason, you are not available to run the business, your spouse will be familiar with certain people and situations about your business. These people should include your attorney, accountant, any consultants or advisors, your major suppliers and creditors. The long-term advantages of having your spouse work four weeks per year in your business with you, greatly outweigh the short-term inconvenience.

Whenever you can, and as often as you need it, you should take advantage of whatever free business counseling is available.

The Small Business Administration has many excellent booklets, checklists and brochures available on quite a large variety of businesses. They also have management and financial assistance programs that can definitely benefit just about any small business. Most local universities, and many private organizations hold seminars at very minimal costs, often without charge. You should also take advantage of free services offered by your bank and local library.

You may feel no great need for continuing education courses, but if you learn even one new bit of information that will be of ultimate benefit to you or your business, the little time spent at a seminar or in a night course, will be a wise investment.

The important thing about continuing education courses, but if you learn even one new bit of information that will be of ultimate benefit to you or your business, the little time spent at a seminar or in a night course, will be a wise investment.

The important thing about running a small business is to know the direction in which you're heading - to know on a day-to-day basis, your progress in that direction - to be aware of what your competitors are doing - industry trends and sales figures for businesses comparable to the size of yours - to practice good money management at all times - and to prepare yourself to solve your problems before they arise.

Generally speaking, times are always tough for small businesses. In order to survive with a small business, regardless of the economic times, it is essential that you surround yourself with smart people, and practice sound business management at all times. Be sure that if you are doing well now, you will continue to be successful in the future.

To Your Success,

Ken Smith
www.lessons4success.com
kandtenterprisesmi@yahoo.com
www.powerteamsuccess.blogspot.com
http://www.worldprofitassociates.com/default.cfm?id=100300

HOW TO START A BUSINESS IN YOUR OWN HOME AND MAKE BIG BUCKS

HOW TO START A BUSINESS IN YOUR OWN HOME AND MAKE BIG BUCKS

In these times, it's becoming increasingly difficult to get by or make ends meet with just one source of income. Thus, more and more people are investigating the possibilities of, and indeed, the idea of, starting their own extra-income businesses. Most of these part-time endeavors are started and operated from the comforts and privacy of these people's homes.

Most of these people are making the extra money they need - some have wisely and carefully built these extra income efforts into full-time, very profitable businesses - while some are just keeping busy, having fun, and enjoying life as never before. The important thing is that they are doing something other than wait for the government to give them a handout, to improve their lot in life - and you can do it too!

The fields of mail order selling, multi-level marketing, and in-home party sales have never been more popular. If any of these kinds of extra-income-producing ideas appeal to you, then for sure, you owe it to yourself to check them out. But, these aren't the only fields of endeavor you can start and operate from home with little or no investment and learn as you go.

If you type, you can start a home-based typing service; if you have a truck or access to a trailer, you can start a clean-up/hauling service; simply collecting old newspapers from your neighbors can get you started in the paper recycling business; more than a few enterprising housewives have found success and fortune by starting home and/or apartment cleaning services; if you have a yard full of flowers, you can make good extra money by supplying fresh-cut flowers to restaurants, and offices in lucrative personalized coffee mug business. What I'm saying is that in reality, there's literally no end to the ways in which you can start and operate a profitable extra-income business from your home.

The first thing you "must" do however, is some basic market research. Find out for yourself, first-hand, just how many people there are - particularly in your local area - who are interested in your proposed product or service, and "would be willing to stand in line to pay money for it." This is known as defining your market and pin-pointing your customers. If after checking around, talking about your idea with a whole lot of people over a period of one to three months, you get the idea that these people would be paying customers, then your next effort should be directed toward the "detailing" of your business plan. The more precise and detailed you write out such a plan - covering all the bases relating to how you'll do everything that needs to be done, and when - the easier it's going to be for you to attain success. Such a plan should show your start-up investment needs, your advertising plan, your production costs as well as procedures, your sales program, and how your time will be allocated. To often, enthusiastic and ambitious entrepreneurs "jump in" on an extra project and suddenly find that the costs are beyond their abilities, and the time requirements more than they can meet. It pays to lay it all out on paper before you get involved, and the more detailed you can "see" everything before you start, the better your chances of success.

Assuming you've got your market targeted - you know who your customers are going to be and how you're going to reach them with your product or service offer; and you've got all your cost as well as time requirements itemized - the next thing is to set your plan in motion and start making money.

Here is the most important "secret" of all, relating to starting and building a profitable home-based business - Regardless of what kind of business you start, you must have the capital and the available time to sustain your business through the first six months of operation on the basis of not taking in any money. Most importantly, you must not count on receiving of spending any money coming in from your business, on yourself or for your bills, during those first six months. Any and all the income from your business during those first six months should be reinvested in your business in order for it to grow and reach your planned first year potential for it.

Once you're by that first six months milestones, you can set up a small monthly salary or draw for yourself, and begin enjoying the fruits of your labor - but the first six months of operation for nay business is very critical, so do not plan to use any of that money your business generates for yourself.

If you've got our business plan properly organized, and have worked your plan, at the end of your first year, you should be able to begin thinking about hiring other people to alleviate some of your workload. Remember this, starting a successful business is not a means towards either a job for yourself or a way to keep busy. It should be regarded as the beginning of a business that will grow and prosper, with you as the top dog - eventually, you'll have other people doing all the work for you, even running the whole business, while you vacation in the Bahamas or Hawaii and collect or receive regular income from your initial efforts.

Meanwhile, the best of luck to you in all your extra-incoming building efforts, and may the angels of paradise keep you constantly under their umbrella of smiles and happiness!

To Your Success,

Ken Smith
kandtenterprisesmi@yahoo.com
www.lessons4success.com
www.powerteamsuccess.blogspot.com http://www.worldprofitassociates.com/default.cfm?id=100300 (Advertise Your Site/Business on 30,000+ sites FREE for Life)

REFERENCE MATERIALS ARE AVALIABLE UPON REQUEST. FOR A LIST OF AVAILABLE MATERIALS EMAIL;

http://www.worldprofitassociates.com/default.cfm?id=100300 with "Reference Materials List" in the Subject line and the information will be email back to you.

Ken has been promoting Home Based and Internet businesses for over 4 years. He believes that there are so many opportunities available that ANYONE can find a business that they can operate from home. One key element in being success in life and business, Ken believes, is that a person must continually improve themselves. Ken believes that Personal Development is the catylist that will propel one into major success. To read other articles that Ken has written and submitted go to: http://www.powerteamsuccess.blogspot.com, and http://EzineArticles.com/?id=222238. To check the current business that Ken is promoting go to: http://www.lessons4success.com.

Making Money With Give-Aways

MAKING MONEY WITH GIVE-AWAYS

The guy who thought of giving away free rolls of film every time you have
your films developed at his photo center - is a genius!

You know the rest of the story, and so do thousands other photo centers
around the world who copy this excellent promotion.


STRETCHING DOLLARS

A budget conscious market is always out looking for a free lunch. For
this reason, you can build a marketing system that self-liquidates its
associated cost, distributing gift certificates that offer free this or
free that - all the customer has to do is pay a minimal shipping and
handling charge.


FREE SOFTWARE

In Las Vegas, I met a poker player who sells software he put together for
$29 and higher. To double the volume and reach other markets, he decided to
repackage his software. He gave it a new name, made a new disk label,
and offered it at a ridiculous price:


FREE

To receive the software, all you have to do is fill out the gift certificate
and send it back to him with $8.69 for shipping and handling.


THEY WENT APE! He was giving the certificates to schools, businesses, and
stores who give away the certificates as their own promotional gifts to their
customers. Because the cost to produce and mail this disk is 60 cents, he
was making $8 with every certificate that was redeemed for the free software.


$800,000 IN 27 WEEKS

Take a snapshot of this picture: Say, a total of 1 Million certificates
were circulated. Let's say you paid half a penny to print and distribute
these million certificates. Your cost is $5,000. If you generate a 7%
conversion, you'll earn $560,000.00


NUMBERS GAME

If you give other people permission to make copies of and give away your
certificates, your cost to circulate 1 Million certificates will go down.
But your opportunity to make money remains the same.

1% response = $80,000

2% response = $160,000
3% response = $240,000
5% response = $400,000
10% response = $800,000


THE INTERNET

Now, if you do the same thing on the internet you will see similar results. One thing to note is that with the internet you don’t have the cost of normal advertising and you have a vast array of advertising venues. Here are just a few of the advertising venues that can be utilized:

Classified ads (free and paid)
Pay per clicks (ie., Google adwords)
Ezine advertising
Co-op advertising
Joint Venture advertising…

The possibilities are almost endless! Contact me for help in this area (powerbizmi@yahoo.com) put in the subject line “Help with Give aways” and I will promptly answer your questions.

Another point to consider about going the internet route is that you don’t have to have an actual physical product to give away. Give ebooks, Special Reports, and the like that cost very little to produce or you can put the previously mentioned items on a CD and mail it to the prospect. If you plan to mail the item it should look very professional… remember, your reputation is on the line.

And last but certainly not least, your give away must have value, people do not want junk! Make sure your give away is valuable to the audience you have targeted.

To Your Success,

Ken Smith
www.lessons4success.com
powerbizmi@yahoo.com
www.powerteamsuccess.com

Great Deals on Books, Videos, DVD, etc

Just wanted to pass this along. I recently bought a couple of Personal Development books at half.com and I got great deals on them. If you're searching for books, videos, dvd, ect., to improve yourself, gain knowledge, etc., I recommend you click on the banner below and see for yourself how much you can save by using this site. Thank you for your time.

Here's the link:



To Your Success,

Ken Smith
www.lessons4success.com
kandtsmithga@yahoo.com

Learn Your Life's Purpose in 20 Minutes or Less

I recently came across this article and was so impressed by it that I got permission to reprint it in this blog. Please take the time to read it and do the excercise.

Most of us go through life and don't really know what our purpose is, we meander around from place to place, job to job, hobby to hobby, etc., looking for that "right" thing we're supposed ot be doing.

Well, I think Steve Pablino's article will help you find that purpose in life that will drive you to the success you are looking for. Take a few minutes and read this article.

Thanks and have a great day,

Ken Smith
www.lessons4success.com
powerteamsuccess.blogspot.com
kandtenterprisesmi@yahoo.com

How to discover your life purpose in about 20 minutes

January 16th, 2005 by Steve Pavlina

How do you discover your real purpose in life? I’m not talking about your job, your daily responsibilities, or even your long-term goals. I mean the real reason why you’re here at all — the very reason you exist.

Perhaps you’re a rather nihilistic person who doesn’t believe you have a purpose and that life has no meaning. Doesn’t matter. Not believing that you have a purpose won’t prevent you from discovering it, just as a lack of belief in gravity won’t prevent you from tripping. All that a lack of belief will do is make it take longer, so if you’re one of those people, just change the number 20 in the title of this blog entry to 40 (or 60 if you’re really stubborn). Most likely though if you don’t believe you have a purpose, then you probably won’t believe what I’m saying anyway, but even so, what’s the risk of investing an hour just in case?

Here’s a story about Bruce Lee which sets the stage for this little exercise. A master martial artist asked Bruce to teach him everything Bruce knew about martial arts. Bruce held up two cups, both filled with liquid. “The first cup,” said Bruce, “represents all of your knowledge about martial arts. The second cup represents all of my knowledge about martial arts. If you want to fill your cup with my knowledge, you must first empty your cup of your knowledge.”

If you want to discover your true purpose in life, you must first empty your mind of all the false purposes you’ve been taught (including the idea that you may have no purpose at all).

So how to discover your purpose in life? While there are many ways to do this, some of them fairly involved, here is one of the simplest that anyone can do. The more open you are to this process, and the more you expect it to work, the faster it will work for you. But not being open to it or having doubts about it or thinking it’s an entirely idiotic and meaningless waste of time won’t prevent it from working as long as you stick with it — again, it will just take longer to converge.

Here’s what to do:

1. Take out a blank sheet of paper or open up a word processor where you can type (I prefer the latter because it’s faster).
2. Write at the top, “What is my true purpose in life?”
3. Write an answer (any answer) that pops into your head. It doesn’t have to be a complete sentence. A short phrase is fine.
4. Repeat step 3 until you write the answer that makes you cry. This is your purpose.

That’s it. It doesn’t matter if you’re a counselor or an engineer or a bodybuilder. To some people this exercise will make perfect sense. To others it will seem utterly stupid. Usually it takes 15-20 minutes to clear your head of all the clutter and the social conditioning about what you think your purpose in life is. The false answers will come from your mind and your memories. But when the true answer finally arrives, it will feel like it’s coming to you from a different source entirely.

For those who are very entrenched in low-awareness living, it will take a lot longer to get all the false answers out, possibly more than an hour. But if you persist, after 100 or 200 or maybe even 500 answers, you’ll be struck by the answer that causes you to surge with emotion, the answer that breaks you. If you’ve never done this, it may very well sound silly to you. So let it seem silly, and do it anyway.

As you go through this process, some of your answers will be very similar. You may even re-list previous answers. Then you might head off on a new tangent and generate 10-20 more answers along some other theme. And that’s fine. You can list whatever answer pops into your head as long as you just keep writing.

At some point during the process (typically after about 50-100 answers), you may want to quit and just can’t see it converging. You may feel the urge to get up and make an excuse to do something else. That’s normal. Push past this resistance, and just keep writing. The feeling of resistance will eventually pass.

You may also discover a few answers that seem to give you a mini-surge of emotion, but they don’t quite make you cry — they’re just a bit off. Highlight those answers as you go along, so you can come back to them to generate new permutations. Each reflects a piece of your purpose, but individually they aren’t complete. When you start getting these kinds of answers, it just means you’re getting warm. Keep going.

It’s important to do this alone and with no interruptions. If you’re a nihilist, then feel free to start with the answer, “I don’t have a purpose,” or “Life is meaningless,” and take it from there. If you keep at it, you’ll still eventually converge.

When I did this exercise, it took me about 25 minutes, and I reached my final answer at step 106. Partial pieces of the answer (mini-surges) appeared at steps 17, 39, and 53, and then the bulk of it fell into place and was refined through steps 100-106. I felt the feeling of resistance (wanting to get up and do something else, expecting the process to fail, feeling very impatient and even irritated) around steps 55-60. At step 80 I took a 2-minute break to close my eyes, relax, clear my mind, and to focus on the intention for the answer to come to me — this was helpful as the answers I received after this break began to have greater clarity.

Here was my final answer: to live consciously and courageously, to resonate with love and compassion, to awaken the great spirits within others, and to leave this world in peace.

When you find your own unique answer to the question of why you’re here, you will feel it resonate with you deeply. The words will seem to have a special energy to you, and you will feel that energy whenever you read them.

Discovering your purpose is the easy part. The hard part is keeping it with you on a daily basis and working on yourself to the point where you become that purpose.

If you’re inclined to ask why this little process works, just put that question aside until after you’ve successfully completed it. Once you’ve done that, you’ll probably have your own answer to why it works. Most likely if you ask 10 different people why this works (people who’ve successfully completed it), you’ll get 10 different answers, all filtered through their individual belief systems, and each will contain its own reflection of truth.

Obviously, this process won’t work if you quit before convergence. I’d guesstimate that 80-90% of people should achieve convergence in less than an hour. If you’re really entrenched in your beliefs and resistant to the process, maybe it will take you 5 sessions and 3 hours, but I suspect that such people will simply quit early (like within the first 15 minutes) or won’t even attempt it at all. But if you’re drawn to read this blog (and haven’t been inclined to ban it from your life yet), then it’s doubtful you fall into this group.

Give it a shot! At the very least, you’ll learn one of two things: your true purpose in life -or- that you should unsubscribe from this blog.

This article is copyright © 2006 by Steve Pavlina. http://www.stevepavlina.com/

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