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Other Added - Business Failure, The 8 Traps Causing Failure And The One Attribute Which Ensures Business Survival
Have you ever spent hundreds or thousands of dollars placing an ad in a magazine and not have a good response? Have you been confused as to why your ad did not work like you had hoped?Here are 9 basic tips for advertising your business in magazines.1. Color ads are generally more effective than black/white ads. The exception is, if the page you are advertising is in color and your ad is black/white. The black/white ad can even be more profitable if it is done well.2. A full page ad is often thought to do better. Again there can be exceptions to the rule. If you have a black/white ad against color ads, you can have the ad smaller and generate more response. Or, if your ad is placed in a more opportune location in the magazine.3. The most effective placements in a magazine are the following: First the back cover of the magazine, second, is the inside front two pages. Third, the inside back two pages. Also good placements for ads are on the outside of each page. As people browse through, they will see those ads before they see ads closer to the center.4. Ads that are placed with wording around them are ideal. The reason being that while people are reading they will glance more than once at the ad. I
A more meaningful figure is the sales required to produce the necessary cash to pay all your living expenses and your taxes.
Many proprietors don’t know that a growing business requires more and more capital to support it. Even if a doubling of sales does not require an increase in staff or equipment, it does require an increase in stock and debtors.
In most small enterprises this can only come from profits. It is seldom that the money in the bank today is completely available for spending today.
Often a shortage of cash is a symptom of other problems with the business, so your first move should be to your accountant.
Trap 4 - Failing to Plan
Failing to plan is the single most common management trap among struggling business owners! Planning is very important for ‘Big Business’, but it is vital for the small firm
As you begin your job search, you will find that many employers will not only request your resume, but will expect a cover letter as well. Many people overlook the importance of a cover letter, and instead only focus on putting an effort into their resume. However, the cover letter is just as important in getting an employer to call you for an interview. The following article will outline how to write a cover letter with resume.In considering how to write a cover letter with resume it is appropriate to first consider what must be written into your cover letter. First , your cover letter should state what job you are applying for, as well as, the qualifications you possess to do this job. The cover letter should leave the employer wanting to know more about you, and cause the reviewer to call you for an interview.Another factor to consider beyond the content of the cover letter is its presentation. When learning how to write a cover letter with resume, the applicant should use quality paper to print the cover letter and resume. It is also a good idea to design a letterhead for yourself. If you are not creative enough to do this, you can hire someone or use a template from your word processing software.Not only should the cover letter be printed on quality paper, it should look professional without any creases, stains or smudges. If you are terrible at spelling, it is highly recommended that you run the spell che
At the same time huge corporations with seemly vibrant trade suddenly close their doors.
Why is this so?
An analysis of the reasons for business failure suggests that over 60% of all business failure is due to poor management practices.
The one attribute which must exist in every firm The only rule to survival is that money in must be greater than money out. We often forget this. Too many entrepreneurs think that extra cash will solve almost every problem. Good management - not money - is the key to a business flourishing or dying.
Does this mean that the old saying about using other people’s money is wrong? No! But the money coming in each year must be greater than the money going out for expenses, owners’ private expenses and the costs of servicing loans. Profit is vital to a business but cash is king.
No cash no business
Learning management skills
There are two very good ways for small business owners to learn management skills.
One is to find out what the “high-fliers” in your industry do, and do the same! Perhaps then you will become a “high-flier” too!
Another is to study the mistakes of others. We have identified those often made by business owners.
The following are the 8 traps which cause business failures.
Trap 1- Discounting the need for experience
If there is one thing that distinguishes big business management from small business management, it is that the owner/manager must be the chief cook and bottle washer in a small business whereas each of the different facets of a business such as accounting, marketing, purchasing, research, training and sales, has a specialist who is responsible for them in large firms.
Seldom does one person have an in-depth knowledge or experience in all management disciplines. So the businessman who has a real skill in only one or two needs to be strengthened by knowledge in the others.
The best Chef in Australia will find it hard to succeed in business for himself if he has no skills in marketing or financial matters.
One solution is to get some training in operating a small business before you start; Colleges now have good programs for the intending new purchaser.
The owner should review her own weak points. The gaps can then be closed by a crash self-development program, getting some knowing partners or staff, or by hiring outside consultants.
Trap 2 - Sloppy Bookkeeping
New operators often ask the question-What books should we keep? The question invites a short and concise answer. But it is the wrong question and the accountant who answers does disservice to his client.
The question is not-“What should we keep?”- but “What do I need to know?” The correct books meticulously kept are useless if the proprietor makes no use of the information they convey.
A poor record keeping system leads to serious problems in every aspect of the business from advertising to sales, from stock control to taxes.
A record keeping system should be easy to maintain and regularly kept to provide current information quickly.
The appropriate records will tell you a lot of things about your business that you will need to know! If it doesn’t you need to change it. Information unused is worthless information and a waste of time.
Trap 3 – Spending more than you receive
One of the most dangerous pieces of information that traditional accountants give is a ‘breakeven figure’ which tells you the level of sales which is just sufficient to pay expenses. But what good is that if the business is your only income producer? How will the business survive if you can’t pay the rent on your home or make mortgage payments or pay school fees?
A more meaningful figure is the sales required to produce the necessary cash to pay all your living expenses and your taxes.
Many proprietors don’t know that a growing business requires more and more capital to support it. Even if a doubling of sales does not require an increase in staff or equipment, it does require an increase in stock and debtors.
In most small enterprises this can only come from profits. It is seldom that the money in the bank today is completely available for spending today.
Often a shortage of cash is a symptom of other problems with the business, so your first move should be to your accountant.
Trap 4 - Failing to Plan
Failing to plan is the single most common management trap among struggling business owners! Planning is very important for ‘Big Business’, but it is vital for the small firm b
In the United States, there is a great demand for nurses and many people opt for nursing career. The nursing jobs include working in a doctor's office, hospital, or private care facility. Due to the shortage of nurses faced by different cities of the state, there has been an increase in opportunities for traveling nursing jobs. It is a favorable field of employment where, the nurses are temporarily re-located to different regions for their services. It is suitable for those nurses, who love to travel and explore new places, while providing adequate medical services.Traveling nursing jobs offer an ideal situation to people to choose the appropriate time and place they want to serve and earn a phenomenal income.There are various agencies that provide optimum opportunities for temporary as well as permanent health care positions at the nation's top hospitals. Throughout the U.S, there are number of traveling nursing assignments, that open an opportunity for a career in travel nursing. Many aspiring nurses are attracted towards this field because of its competitive pay, cash bonuses, traveling to different places across the state and other great benefits.There are agencies that partner with leading rental properties nationwide, which ensure free and furnished deluxe private housing for the nurses. Many a times, properties are centrally located and include amenities such as utilities, health club, pool, and security.
No cash no business
Learning management skills
There are two very good ways for small business owners to learn management skills.
One is to find out what the “high-fliers” in your industry do, and do the same! Perhaps then you will become a “high-flier” too!
Another is to study the mistakes of others. We have identified those often made by business owners.
The following are the 8 traps which cause business failures.
Trap 1- Discounting the need for experience
If there is one thing that distinguishes big business management from small business management, it is that the owner/manager must be the chief cook and bottle washer in a small business whereas each of the different facets of a business such as accounting, marketing, purchasing, research, training and sales, has a specialist who is responsible for them in large firms.
Seldom does one person have an in-depth knowledge or experience in all management disciplines. So the businessman who has a real skill in only one or two needs to be strengthened by knowledge in the others.
The best Chef in Australia will find it hard to succeed in business for himself if he has no skills in marketing or financial matters.
One solution is to get some training in operating a small business before you start; Colleges now have good programs for the intending new purchaser.
The owner should review her own weak points. The gaps can then be closed by a crash self-development program, getting some knowing partners or staff, or by hiring outside consultants.
Trap 2 - Sloppy Bookkeeping
New operators often ask the question-What books should we keep? The question invites a short and concise answer. But it is the wrong question and the accountant who answers does disservice to his client.
The question is not-“What should we keep?”- but “What do I need to know?” The correct books meticulously kept are useless if the proprietor makes no use of the information they convey.
A poor record keeping system leads to serious problems in every aspect of the business from advertising to sales, from stock control to taxes.
A record keeping system should be easy to maintain and regularly kept to provide current information quickly.
The appropriate records will tell you a lot of things about your business that you will need to know! If it doesn’t you need to change it. Information unused is worthless information and a waste of time.
Trap 3 – Spending more than you receive
One of the most dangerous pieces of information that traditional accountants give is a ‘breakeven figure’ which tells you the level of sales which is just sufficient to pay expenses. But what good is that if the business is your only income producer? How will the business survive if you can’t pay the rent on your home or make mortgage payments or pay school fees?
A more meaningful figure is the sales required to produce the necessary cash to pay all your living expenses and your taxes.
Many proprietors don’t know that a growing business requires more and more capital to support it. Even if a doubling of sales does not require an increase in staff or equipment, it does require an increase in stock and debtors.
In most small enterprises this can only come from profits. It is seldom that the money in the bank today is completely available for spending today.
Often a shortage of cash is a symptom of other problems with the business, so your first move should be to your accountant.
Trap 4 - Failing to Plan
Failing to plan is the single most common management trap among struggling business owners! Planning is very important for ‘Big Business’, but it is vital for the small firm
One of the reason we are entrepreneurs is because we have tons and tons of ideas. And fortunately or unfortunately, we are enthusiastic about every one of them. So how do we focus ourselves? How do we pick the projects we would undertake next? What kind of a measuring stick can we build to help us make a decision?Everyone's measuring stick will be different. You are the only one that can pick the qualities that define value for you. After you choose your list of qualities you will need to assign a value to each of them in order to create your own personal Payback Measuring Stick. Here are some ideas:What is the payback I get for this project in terms of:- My time (How long will it take to implement? Can I do it or do I need to hire some/all of it done?)- Money invested. (How does this project fit into my over all business budget?)- How it feeds my passion (Is this on target with my innermost goal?)- Creativity- Pleasure/enjoyment in creating/doing it- Potential joint venture possibilities- Leveraging capabilities- Is it scalable in that it can get bigger?- Is it scalable in that it can be built so I do not have to work all the time?- Will it hold more customers/clients?- Will I run out of customers for it? Is there a burning need for it?- What is its current worth? (If it's a project in place now that you are considering expanding)
Seldom does one person have an in-depth knowledge or experience in all management disciplines. So the businessman who has a real skill in only one or two needs to be strengthened by knowledge in the others.
The best Chef in Australia will find it hard to succeed in business for himself if he has no skills in marketing or financial matters.
One solution is to get some training in operating a small business before you start; Colleges now have good programs for the intending new purchaser.
The owner should review her own weak points. The gaps can then be closed by a crash self-development program, getting some knowing partners or staff, or by hiring outside consultants.
Trap 2 - Sloppy Bookkeeping
New operators often ask the question-What books should we keep? The question invites a short and concise answer. But it is the wrong question and the accountant who answers does disservice to his client.
The question is not-“What should we keep?”- but “What do I need to know?” The correct books meticulously kept are useless if the proprietor makes no use of the information they convey.
A poor record keeping system leads to serious problems in every aspect of the business from advertising to sales, from stock control to taxes.
A record keeping system should be easy to maintain and regularly kept to provide current information quickly.
The appropriate records will tell you a lot of things about your business that you will need to know! If it doesn’t you need to change it. Information unused is worthless information and a waste of time.
Trap 3 – Spending more than you receive
One of the most dangerous pieces of information that traditional accountants give is a ‘breakeven figure’ which tells you the level of sales which is just sufficient to pay expenses. But what good is that if the business is your only income producer? How will the business survive if you can’t pay the rent on your home or make mortgage payments or pay school fees?
A more meaningful figure is the sales required to produce the necessary cash to pay all your living expenses and your taxes.
Many proprietors don’t know that a growing business requires more and more capital to support it. Even if a doubling of sales does not require an increase in staff or equipment, it does require an increase in stock and debtors.
In most small enterprises this can only come from profits. It is seldom that the money in the bank today is completely available for spending today.
Often a shortage of cash is a symptom of other problems with the business, so your first move should be to your accountant.
Trap 4 - Failing to Plan
Failing to plan is the single most common management trap among struggling business owners! Planning is very important for ‘Big Business’, but it is vital for the small firm
If you have started a wholesale distribution business already, or are planning on starting one, your most important question is the following.How do I market my wholesale distribution business?You can have the best prices, the highest quality, and the most sought after names, but you will only make sales if store owners know what you have.So how do you market your business?As the owner of a wholesale business, www.closeoutexplosion.com I have the daily challenge of exposing my wholesale business to store owners. Like I said before, until they hear about me, they won’t be able to buy my products.So here are my recommended marketing strategies for wholesale distributors:Marketing Strategy #1Hit the streets. The most direct way to introduce your wholesale distributor business to retailers is by meeting them in person. Walk into their stores and show them your wholesale products. Don’t fear rejection. Store owners are always looking for good deals on the merchandise they sell.Marketing Strategy #2Print up a flyer showcasing your products. Include clear pictures, product descriptions, and prices. Call retailers and let them know that you will be mailing them out a flyer listing your wholesale products. Follow up the mailing with a call requesting a time to meet in person. You can find a list of retailers by using your local yellow pages.Marketing Strategy #3Adver
A poor record keeping system leads to serious problems in every aspect of the business from advertising to sales, from stock control to taxes.
A record keeping system should be easy to maintain and regularly kept to provide current information quickly.
The appropriate records will tell you a lot of things about your business that you will need to know! If it doesn’t you need to change it. Information unused is worthless information and a waste of time.
Trap 3 – Spending more than you receive
One of the most dangerous pieces of information that traditional accountants give is a ‘breakeven figure’ which tells you the level of sales which is just sufficient to pay expenses. But what good is that if the business is your only income producer? How will the business survive if you can’t pay the rent on your home or make mortgage payments or pay school fees?
A more meaningful figure is the sales required to produce the necessary cash to pay all your living expenses and your taxes.
Many proprietors don’t know that a growing business requires more and more capital to support it. Even if a doubling of sales does not require an increase in staff or equipment, it does require an increase in stock and debtors.
In most small enterprises this can only come from profits. It is seldom that the money in the bank today is completely available for spending today.
Often a shortage of cash is a symptom of other problems with the business, so your first move should be to your accountant.
Trap 4 - Failing to Plan
Failing to plan is the single most common management trap among struggling business owners! Planning is very important for ‘Big Business’, but it is vital for the small firm
For many companies, procuring the right packaging, such as Poly Bags can be daunting. This is especially true of polythene bags. They come in all shapes and sizes, just about any thickness imaginable, some are welded at the bottom, some at the side. Some are printed in various colours, some have no print at all. It may be boring, but someone must take the responsibility of buying these items, and whoever does it must get it right. It is no good if you have a strict deadline to launch a new product and you can't get it into the bag. Did the product suddenly grow, or was the wrong size bag ordered. All eyes on the packaging buyer! And what of larger items? Many companies use Pallet Covers and Pallet Shrouds that are made of polythene. How do you make sure that the supplier can provide these items on time, every time and at a reasonable cost? The important thing is - get it right first time - oh and get it right every other time as well!
A more meaningful figure is the sales required to produce the necessary cash to pay all your living expenses and your taxes.
Many proprietors don’t know that a growing business requires more and more capital to support it. Even if a doubling of sales does not require an increase in staff or equipment, it does require an increase in stock and debtors.
In most small enterprises this can only come from profits. It is seldom that the money in the bank today is completely available for spending today.
Often a shortage of cash is a symptom of other problems with the business, so your first move should be to your accountant.
Trap 4 - Failing to Plan
Failing to plan is the single most common management trap among struggling business owners! Planning is very important for ‘Big Business’, but it is vital for the small firm because it hasn’t the resources to cope with any mistakes as does the large organisation.
Developing plans for your business isn’t easy - only necessary! We often hear the plea, ‘But it is impossible to accurately predict the sales in this business!’ And often they are right too!
But it isn’t necessary to be accurate in predictions and estimations if you monitor and adjust as you go. Nor are figures as important as the trends. So absolute accuracy isn’t necessary. A poorly prepared plan well maintained and adjusted as you go is a thousand times better then no plan.
Trap 5 - Dilly Dallying
The typical small business proprietor has too much to do. Surveys suggest that most small business owners work a sixty-hour week with some regularly doing over seventy. Does this sound like anyone to you know? So busy are they that they haven’t time for trivial matters and all time is spent on vital matters dealing with business management-right?- Wrong!
A trap for the unwary is to allow the business to run the proprietor instead of the proprietor running the business. Sometimes this a symptom of poor planning, but often owners fritter away their time on trivial matters doing insignificant tasks which staff should do while vital jobs are left undone.
A safeguard against this is to ask yourself several times a day ‘Is this the most productive thing I could be doing right now?’ And do the most productive task right now.
Trap 6 - Poor Marketing
The first priority of every business is to get and keep customers. No matter how good the service; no matter how excellent the product; nothing happens unless you have customers.
‘The best advertising is word-of-mouth’ is a maxim that has harmed more businesses than any other truism. It’s not because it’s untrue, word-of-mouth is probably the best advertising. After all, it is free, it is believable and it works. But too often it is used as an excuse for having no marketing at all.
So even if an enterprise adopts word-of-mouth advertising as its preferred marketing strategy, it should formulate a plan to stimulate its customers to talk to their friends. What if it isn’t bringing in new customers at a fast enough rate to remain profitable? I see so many clients who buy coffee shops and then sit back and wait for customers. You can’t grow that way.
When you get down to the basics, marketing is fairly simple really. You need to know exactly what features your product has and benefits your customers derive from those features. You need to know what sort of people your existing customers are, and then explore how to present you product/service to the same sort of people.
Whatever your business is, you should strive to make it ‘different’ in some way. No two restaurants should be identical even if offering the same cuisine. Be independent and innovative in what you do and offer something different-even if it is in the quality or personal service. Give customers a reason to come to your restaurant instead of the one up the road.
Take the time to explore ways of increasing the number of customers. Sales seldom increase without some effort, and a business standing still with no new customers is a business beginning to die.
Trap 7 - Poor employee Management
Despite their good reputation for employer/employee relationships, small businesses often mishandle staff. Small business proprietors continually complain of the poor staff on offer. They complain of employees not taking direction, being unenthusiastic at work, taking sickies and long lunch and tea breaks.
Disgruntled workers are poor performers who chase customers away. Yet it has been proven that the cause of most of these problems is not the poor quality of the staff offering themselves for jobs, but inept staff management.
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