Know where you are – your accounting records, financial statements, bank accounts and investments, employee and other records – these all tell you a story of where you have been and where you are now.  You need good records that tell you this story on demand.  Keep them up to date throughout the year.  If you know where you are, then are you happy with it or do you wish you were someplace else?  Make sure you work with a good CPA who can help you figure out where you are and get your records in shape for year end planning – before its too late.

Know where you want to be – What goals or targets do you have in mind?  How much money do you need to accumulate to fund your retirement?  How do you plan to exit your business – you will exit it someday – do you have a plan?  Getting from where you are now to where you want to be is what business planning is all about.  You can plan for your future and acheive the results you want.  You just have to know how to do it.   Work with a Business and Financial coach to  learn how.

Learn how to manage your resources – time, people and money are your scarcest resources.  Are you wasting them?  Learn how to manage them efficiently.  Do an HR audit to determine how your people are working out – it’s all about hiring, training, motivating, evaluating, and compensating your team.  Make sure you have the right people for the right reasons at the right time.  Work with a strong team for tax, business, HR and financial support that teaches you how to manage your resources.

Keep Learning – adopt a life-long learning attitude.  Personal and professional growth is essential for achieving new levels in your business.  Your team is only as strong as its leader – make sure you keep learning from the best people and resources you can find.

For more information about how to build a more successful business and financial future – ask for our Business Builder White Paper.

The first thing that you need to understand is what outsourcing really is. Many people think of outsourcing and flinch because they think about vital work being handed over to services that can’t do it effectively. The truth is that vast and unwise outsourcing has given the process a badly deserved reputation. As a matter of fact, outsourcing is simply finding someone who is willing to provide you with a valuable service.

For instance, consider your web page. It cannot be denied that your web page is something that is very important and in many cases, it will be the first and best way for your customers to interact with you. It is essential that your web page work correctly and effectively. On one hand, you can take coding classes and learn to create the web page that you need. On the other hand, you could pay someone who already has the expertise to create the website that you are after. While just about anyone can throw up a basic web page, it takes a great deal of training to make sure that you get a page that is attractive and functional.

When you are a small business, one thing that you definitely learn is how to allocate resources. You might spend a lot of time figuring out how you are going to be able to get the results that you need and how to best make your budget stretch. What you also need to learn to budget is time! Think about how much your time is worth to your small business when it comes to things like administration and idea generation. At the end of the day, you will find that in many areas, it is definitely worth your time and even a real savings to have trained professionals in place.

One area where you need to seriously think about outsourcing is that of bookkeeping. Bookkeeping will include everything from accounting to payroll and if you want to make sure that the job gets done quickly and effectively, this is where looking into a local CPA can be essential. You will save money, you will save time and you will be able to see a serious spike in your productivity.

For more information on how you can benefit from outsourcing, visit www.DebraSchillCPA.com.

http://www.planningtips.com/Planning_Tips.asp?Co_ID=98512&Tip_ID=6830

Check back often for updates.

Cash flow can be more important than profit.

Did you get that?  You can be profitable, but your bank account says cash-poor.  A lot of business owners do not know what cash flow is, how to calculate it and manage it.  All you know is that you worry about meeting a payroll or paying bills or pay penalties for late payments because you don’t have the cash.  And then you have to borrow.  But you can get a handle on cash flow, and you don’t have to be good at numbers to do it. 

In our Cash Flow program, you will master the 5 severe warning signs that you are headed for a cash flow problem, and you’ll be able to stop cash flow problems before they start.  You can avoid all of the usual symptoms, and always have more cash coming in than going out.  Or if your business is seasonal, you will learn how to plan and prepare for those fluctuations.  In this program you’ll learn how to calculate a cash flow projection.  This is a tool you can use over and over again.

Click the Welcome Tab above for more information.

Put mid-year tax planning in your summer agenda

IRS defines new work credit

Social Security and Medicare to go broke sooner than expected.

Read details:  http://www.planningtips.com/Planning_Tips.asp?Co_ID=98512&Tip_ID=6850

Comment below for conversation about these topics!

I often see two business owners in the same place financially.  One is struggling, or what I call  “starving” and one is what I call “hungry”.  Can you see the difference?  It’s an attitude, not the state of their financial being. 

Struggling or starving business owners are working  hard IN the job of their business, with their head down, running into things (challenges).  They just keep on doing what they know to do, getting the same results, taking what comes to them.  There’s always something in their way and eventually they give in and give up or close because they starve.

Hungry business owners, on the other hand, are working IN their business too, doing their job, but they walk around with their head up and don’t run into things because they can see where they are going.  They know things aren’t going well and they don’t yet know how to fix it.   But they are looking for help, proactively looking for new things to try instead of taking what comes to them.  They know that they will find it if they keep looking and they won’t give up until they find it.  They are hungry but not starving because they get bits of food (or success) along the way to keep them going.  They won’t stay hungry – they’re just passing through that stage.

Do you see the difference?  What kind of business owner are you?  I am looking for “hungry” business owners to tell your story here.  Our site is about giving you tools to feed yourself.  Don’t stay hungry!!   Come back and stick around!

Debra

So help me out – post some comments and let’s get a conversation started.  Here are some questions you might think about posting answers for:

Are you a small business owner or thinking about starting a business? Tell some of your business story.

What kind of resources do you look for online and how do you use them?   Do you consider yourself a self-learner?  Where else do you find resources to help you develop your business?

Tell me about your own website journey -  have you worked with professional web designers?  How has that worked out for you?  Post your site URL and discuss your site offerings.  Do you know your statistics and how many people you drive to your site?  Are you getting the results you want?

What is your online marketing strategy? Do you have one and how’s it working out for you?

These are just some of the things I have been thinking about.  Post your comments and ideas below – please!

Thanks  -

Debra

Cash flow is literally the flow of cash in and out of your business. Identifying the sources of your business’s cash inflows and outflows can dramatically change the way you run your business. Once you know how much cash you have available and where the cash goes, you can anticipate problems and plan for how to turn them into opportunities or lessen their negative impact. Successful cash flow management helps you avoid those seasonal fluctuations and money crunches by planning ahead for them.  You will no longer play catch up because you will have the tools to plan and be prepared.

We have workshops available that can help you learn to better manage your cash flow. For more information, click on the link below.

Cash Flow Management

The forecasting process has seven steps. These steps include identifying your costs and determining your breakeven sales level.  This seven step process is an easier way for you to make forecasts and set a destination for your business.

We have a workshop available to help you make a forecast for your business. For more information, read this article  

Forecasting Information

Picture that destination – your first million.  What comes to mind?  A million in sales, maybe in one year?  A million dollars in the bank?  Maybe it’s not the money as much as it is the lifestyle of a millionaire…….

Like all road trips, this road trip requires that you know where you are now and where you want to go.  Then you need a road map to chart how you’ll get there.  

On this road trip, your business plan is the road map.  Business planning is about figuring out where you are now and where you want to be, then charting the course of how you will acheive your goals.

So – are you going on this road trip with us or not?