Your Business Plan By Amilu Stewart

There are several steps to consider when you are developing your online business. One important step is the business plan that will be your best resource to achieve your new goal. You will want to consider your background, experience, knowledge and talents that you bring to your new business. These available resources will guide you to find the opportunities that you are seeking.

Your business plan should include the definition of your business, the goals that you wish to achieve and the method of recording your balance sheet and cash flow. As you research the demand for the product or service that your business will provide, you will be able to estimate the start up costs. Then go a step further and anticipate the potential revenues , profits and operating costs.Over estimate your start up costs so that you will not be caught with insufficient funds. This estimation should be based on the sum of the start up costs and operating expenses for the first six months of operation of your new business.

You may want to consider hiring an accountant or book keeper to plan your financial model. It is most important that you have a well conceived accounting and book keeping method from the start both for tax planning and tax reporting. In order to not be audited by the IRS, make certain that you separate your personal expenses and incomes from your business income and expenses. Regular maintenance of a current balance sheet and income statement is a basic requirement. Be certain to keep accurate bank statements to be able to substantiate your records.

Your business plan may want to consider the type of business entity you will be. The quickest way to start a business is with a sole proprietorship, but you are at risk if your business is sued as your personal assets will be at risk. Incorporating your business such as an S corporation or a limited liability corporation will allow you to protect your personal assets in the case of a suit involving your business.

Some of the essential elements of a business plan include the company name, the goals of the business, the mission statement, ownership of the company, start up assets, source of suppliers, and the usage of current technology. It needs to have a description of the industry in which you will be doing business and a good financial plan.

A good resource for the new business owner to develop a business plan is through the Small Business Administration. Through a subdivision called Score they can help write and create a business plan for the new business owner.

How to Strategically Manage Your Business Growth By Lisa Almeida

I had a conversation recently with a business owner who described a universal dilemma that all successful business owners face at one time or another. Here's the scenario.

She took an idea and turned it into a product that people want. She built a business that provides a nice income and allows her to set her work schedule to fit her life. The product is selling well, the production is going smoothly, the revenue is surpassing expenses and she has a comfortable balance between work and family life. So where's the problem? This could easily be described by many people as success.

The dilemma lies in the question that has begun to haunt her - the same question that has plagued entrepreneurs for decades, maybe even centuries: "How do I take my business to the next level without sacrificing the quality of my product or the quality of life that I've created?"

This is no trivial task. In fact, this is exactly the place where many businesses crash and burn. But it doesn't have to be. The truth is that when you reach this point, it's almost like starting your business all over again. Because, in a way, that's exactly what you are doing, with a few important differences.

When you first began, you were at ground zero: no revenue, no customers, no reputation, and so nothing to lose but time and maybe some start-up dough.

But by the time you get to the take-it-to-the-next-phase stage, if you don't navigate the changes well, there's a lot to lose: revenue, customers, reputation, the entire business - and depending on how your business is financed, maybe even your home!

Fear not, you can control all of this with a simple four-letter word and not any of the ones that ran through your mind at the end of the last paragraph. The four-letter word I'm referring to is p-l-a-n.

When the haunting begins, it is time to go back to the same drawing board that got you where you are today. If you've managed to acquire this first level of success in your business, you can acquire the next and the one after that and the one after that and take it as far up the ladder as your desire dictates; but not without an advancement plan and a strategy for each rung.

This doesn't need to be a torturous process. Just return to the basics you employed at ground zero. Begin by asking yourself some strategic questions like:

· What do I love about my business as it is now and want to hold on to?
· What would I like to phase out?
· What do my customers love most about my business?
· Will expansion change or create an additional category of ideal customer?
· Growth affects both revenue and expenses. Based on my industry, can I expect these to adjust proportionately?
· What technological additions should I investigate to make the growth as smooth and easy to manage as possible?
· Do I need to update or implement new systems?

Once you start asking yourself questions like these, they'll start to flow almost on their own. Before long, you'll have a pretty good idea of how much growth you are ready and willing to take on as well as which professionals you'll want to enlist for help along the way. Change is the only constant in life and business, but by applying this simple recipe you'll be in good shape to enter your next phase of gain with minimal pain.

Strategic Thinking - Why Leaders Must Get Involved By Martin Haworth

To make a business progress according to a manager or owner's wishes, there needs to be a conscious effort to build a skillset that includes facilitation, negotiation, creativity, team-building and the ability to work through perceived problems with positivity and good humor. To use strategic thinking exercises, hugely helps to support the likelihood of success rather than disappointment and highlight possible hurdles that will need to be fixed, often before they occur.

Strategic Thinking - What's It All About?

ell, the use of strategic thinking as a tool has the widest of applications. In fact anywhere can benefit from a better understanding of the long term direction of the organization. The clarity generated can make the challenging considerations that are required day to day are focused on the 'bigger picture' outcomes that a strategic overview will provide.

The use of a strategic thinking methodology allows reverse engineering of the future, so that pieces are placed in position regularly, rather than ending up there by chance.

Any business that takes such an ad hoc view of their business will err towards chaos with little forward planning. If you want a recipe for those organizations most likely to be in difficulty, especially in the current climate, then this would most likely be it.

Strategic Thinking - Why Bother?

The key point about strategic thinking is that it provides a solid and researched framework to guide towards planned outcomes that may be some way into the distance. Some of the major organizations in the world have strategic plans or some 50 years in advance. Now, that requires some thinking ahead!

A key point about doing this work is that it will position you much better than others in your market who have taken the shorter term view.

In fact, such strategic thinking work needs a bunch of people who are able to ignore current logic and short-term measures. In the future there will most likely be significantly different scenarios that could easily change the rules of the way we think right now. The best at this factor out as many of the issues likely to lead to failure. That way there are few surprises at all.

This kind of work can, of course, be like speculating on the future, with little clarity about exactly what conditions will be in place - yet it is a vital component of the work.

Simple Strategic Thinking As A Process

Pre-emptive preparation of a business plan is challenging always, mostly when you need to do it with the future to consider. Tactical problem solving is much easier, as the challenges you face daily hit you right in the face each week. This is, by itself, likely to cause you much more difficulty in the long term, without the adequate provision for needs going forward.

Longer term plans need to become part of the way things are done throughout the organization as a culture. Then the activities to be undertaken can become part of the longer term goal. To be this way needs the question to be asked to ensure long-term relevance, as well as solving the problems of today.

Measuring day-to-day activities always with the bigger goal in sight ensures longevity and sustainability as well as providing opportunities for the step beyond that of competitors. A view of the long-term issues and opportunities can shape the needs of any business. Only those with the vision and courage to put strategic thinking into the regular consideration will be the successes of next year and the years beyond.

Strategic Thinking - In The End It's For Your Future...

Most usefully, strategic thinking can be a versatile valuable aid to versatile management and provides a 'bigger picture' that simplifies the most complex of business organizational activities processes, as well as creating the environment to encourage the sharing of possibilities for the future.

Strategic thinking is not, per se, a fix, more, it is an ability to at least review the future, yet it is not possible to see how it will end up precisely.

It's the best we can do.

7 Tips To Increase Your Sales And Attract More Buyers For Your Product By Adithya Kasi

These are some simple but yet amazing tips that will help you increase your sales tenfold and attract many buyers. There are many ways of doing this. The most simplest are given below. It is remarkable to see how many people buy your product if you just be a little creative!

Here are some tips on how you can increase you sales :-

1. Use a domain name for your blog that relates to your product so becomes known and "findable." If your ideal domain is already taken, use a version of it such as "YourPRODUCTBlog.com" etc.

2. Continue the branding process for your product by creating a customized logo for the product and putting it in the header of your blog.

3. Participate in the blogosphere: Read and comment on other blogs in your field. This is a prime way to build readership of your blog. It is also a way of getting fresh content for both your blog and for your product.

4. Use your blog to collect names and email addresses of potential customers and clients. Make sure you have a subscription form on the upper corner of your blog, from a service like FeedBlitz.com This service sends automatic email updates of your new blog posts to interested potential buyers/customers.

5. Use a catchy title and a phrase for your product and try to tell the buyer that you cant live without your product and everyday life becomes difficult without your product!

6. Mention the price of your product and the payment method CLEARLY. Many people are unaware of the different types of payment methods.

7. Be user friendly. This means your not doing the customer a favor by selling your product but the customer is doing you a favor by buying YOUR product.

Follow these steps and I'm sure your sales will improve.

Seven Tips For Renewing Your Business By Dhyan Atkinson

For many of us small business owners, these past four years have been very hard. I have clients who were doing well nine years ago with a moderate amount of marketing, who over the past four years have seen those same marketing activities bring in fewer and fewer results. Many small business owners are currently faced with either going out of business or having to start again.

For me, I'm always up for a challenge! I'm always on the "see what else you can do" side of things. I feel a great deal of hope because of this past election and I think with renewed effort, and perhaps a few updated marketing strategies, we all can start rebuilding an economy where cash flows more freely.

If you find yourself with debts up to your ears and few reserves in your savings account but STILL adore what you do for a living and want to continue being self employed, here are seven suggestions for turning your situation around.

1. Now is a great time to reconnect with all the people you know through your business: this means your past, current and potential clients; your business colleagues; people you have met through networking; and perhaps even people you want meet and know. Send them a note that lets them know your doors are still open, that you feel hope for the future, and wish them the best in the coming time of reconstruction. The important thing is to communicate a sense of optimism and to offer a sincere wish that their business does well this coming year. Do it now, before the rush of business holiday cards gets started. Slip in a note about any current offerings for your business. If you have money, send a card. If you don't, send an e-mail.

2. From the list of people to whom you sent your note, select a list of people you are now going to call personally. This is a second touch. When you call, use your basic networking skills. Ask: How are you doing? What's new in your business? Have your target clients changed at all? What would you like me to tell someone I meet who might be a good potential client for you? In addition to keeping you in mind for referrals, is there anything else I can do to help you with your business? Put the other person first and communicate your interest. Then tell them about you and your business. Be sure to ask for what you want. "Do you know anyone who might need my product or service right now?"

3. Give yourself a block of time to reassess your marketing strategies. Keeping in mind that most marketing strategies are more like cultivating a garden than going out and shooting something for dinner, look for some new strategies you can get up and running quickly. Remember, the most effective strategies are those that get you DIRECTLY in front of your target clients or people who can refer them to you. Thus inviting a group of your target clients to come meet with you will be more effective than advertising.

4. This one is a biggie: Make yourself the focal point for a brand-new co-marketing group. Invite 5 to 7 other business owners, who have the same target clients as you do but provide non-competing products or services, to meet with you once a month. You can actually do this by free teleconference which saves everyone time and gas money. Have everyone teach the others about his or her business. Then brainstorm ways in which you can market together to the same clients.

5. If you have been holding back on using any of the up-and-coming marketing strategies, like using LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter or writing articles on the internet to build your business, now is the time to take a crash course from someone who knows how to do these things and get started.

6. In fact, if you have never hired a business consultant or coach before now, and you have any money at all to invest in yourself as a business owner, now is the time to do it! Getting some professional advice, training, and help can short-cut the amount of time it will take you to turn your business around.

7. Finally, you must find some way to stay positive, motivated, intelligent, clear thinking, generous, and alive! These are qualities we all need right now and those small business owners who can bring them to their business life will become a magnet for clients and referral partners. If you are keeping a good face on when you are in public but feel a dread or fear in private, now is the time to learn how to change the way you think and feel. Really! Learning how to "Change your own mind" is tremendously useful skill, essential in helping you turn any situation around.

I wish you the VERY BEST of luck. May we all begin right now to co-create a better economy and a better world!

Online banking – is it safe to do all your banking online? by David Lynes - Loans4

Over recent years the popularity of online banking in the UK has soared, with many consumers enjoying the benefits of being able to conduct their day to day finances and manage their bank accounts from the comfort and privacy of their own homes. These days, many major banks offer online banking facilities to customers, and some banks even operate solely online, reflecting the popularity of banking online.

With online banking many consumers are able to conduct all sorts of transactions online – in fact, pretty much anything other than physically making deposits or withdrawing cash can be done using an online bank account. You can set up or cancel direct debits or standing orders, transfer money, make one off bill payments, check balances, check statements, order stationery such as cheque books, and more.

But just how safe is online banking? Well, the risk of fraud and theft in relation to online banking was once a major concern amongst consumers, and this resulted in many being reluctant to conduct their banking online some years ago. However, banks now use sophisticated software that minimises the risk to the customer, and this has resulted in more and more people enjoying the benefits of online banking whilst also enjoying peace of mind.

Providing you are sensible and exercise caution with regards to your bank account you will find that doing your banking online can be perfectly safe. However, you need to make sure that you do not put yourself at risk through your own actions. For example, although security amongst online banks has become more sophisticated, so have procedures used by fraudsters, and there are some common scams that you need to look out for.

One common scam is known as phishing, and this is where you receive an email that appears to be from your bank, asking you to link to the site and enter your account details. This is something that you should never do, as banks will not send out this type of email. If you have any concerns following the receipt of such an email you should either contact your bank by phone or you should log into your bank account through the search engine and never through the email link, otherwise you will be handing your account details to fraudsters on a plate.

Another thing that you should avoid doing is saving your bank details and password details on a computer that is shared, as this gives others access to your details. Even when the computer is not shared it is safer and more secure to make sure that your details are not saved, and to enter them manually each time you log into your bank account.

5 Strategies for Selling in a Tough Market by Gavin Ingham

1. Believe you can and stay positive!

One of the problems with all of this talk about recession is that once people believe there is going to be a recession they start to feel negative about their business prospects and only tend to see what they believe rather than believing what they see. Once you believe that there is going to be a recession you tend to only notice articles, comments and statistics that support your beliefs.

What's more, your negative beliefs quickly affect your outlook and the way that you feel about your business prospects.

If you thought 2008 was going to be a great year for business, your best year yet; how would you feel?

Conversely, if you thought 2008 was going to see a major recession and that it was going to hit you and your business hard; how would you feel?

Mighty different huh? And remember, nothing's changed here other than your belief. Having a positive and supportive belief structure is essential if you want to succeed in any market but it is vitally essential if you want to keep on selling in a tough one.

Having a winning belief system does not mean that you need to be deluded however! In the middle of the darkest recession you don't want to have your eyes shut! But you have to understand that in a downturn clients want to partner with the best companies. Suppliers that they can rely on. Suppliers that support them. Suppliers who are going to be around tomorrow. And if your competitors struggle, that means more sales and more business for you.

2. Get proactive

You need to be more proactive. Much more proactive. You need to do more marketing and more selling. You need to attend more events and do more networking. You need to do more promotion and more canvassing. You need to increase your sales activities, maybe dramatically.

In a recession many companies cut their sales activites. They figure, "If we're not going to sell anything, what's the point?" Many individual salespeople do this too.

Cut your activity, cut your sales. You're a living, breathing, self-fulfilling prophecy! You believe there is not much business out there, so you feel negative. That in turn affects your activity and your activity destroys your sales results.

Even if there is not as much business out there, then you need to be more active, more focused and more targeted. If your competitors are easing off a little, now is the time to up the anti and grab your share of the market. Even if there is a blip, you will be strongly placed when activity picks up.

One of my friends went down to our local estate agent this week to put his house on the market. He was told that maybe he should wait as he might not get the price he wants right now. They told him the market was quiet and that might not be able to sell the house at all. Better to wait for the market to pick up. I walked past their offices later on that day. They were all sitting, chatting and drinking coffee. They were probably moaning about what a bad year it's going to be. If I's have been in that office, I'd have taken my mates house on and I'd have been on the phone drumming up some viewings. 50 calls, 100, calls, 500 calls... Whatever it takes. I'd have found someone.

Talk about killing your own market! If you see less business then you need to do more sales and marketing, not less. That's common sense.

3. Sharpen your sales skills

If a workman needs a spade and a farmer needs a horse; a boxer needs a defence and a chef needs a recipe; what do salespeople need? The answer's obvious - it's sales skills.

Most salespeople do not spend enough time working on improving their sales skills and techniques. Sales training and development is not something that many salespeople spend their time on out of choice. Perhaps they can get away with this in a booming marrket when sales are easy. Perhaps not. But things will always change if the market tightens. Sales success will go to the salesperson who really understands why people buy and can help people make the right business decisions. Salespeople of this calibre stand to benefit from possible changes ahead because there will be more business for them as their competition falls by the wayside.

Sales will not go to the journeyman salesperson, the mediocre wannabee or the 9-5 order taker. Salespeople like these could well be in for a rough time.

When did you last read a sales training book on selling? How many sales training audios have you listened to over the last month? How many sales training seminars have you atteneded in the last 6 months? For 80% of salespeople reading this, the answer is zero.

4. Improve your service and focus on relationships

As I write this many companies will be working out how to cut corners. They will try to save money by tinkering with their business offerings. They will try and eek extra profits out of their clients by cutting the bells and whistles from their offerings. This is not a good idea. A Swiss cow with no bells is just a cow and no-one would send postcards of them home!

If business is tight you want to be wowing your clients with the best service that they have ever had, from you or from any of your competitors. You need to be going the extra mile. If a recession bites many companies will try and discount to survive. They probably won't (survive), but you don't want your clients going to them as they try to keep their heads above water! You need to "lock in" your existing clients now so that they won't even think about going anywhere else.

Spend time with your clients. Build stronger relationships with your clients. Make sure you truly understand them, their concerns and their businesses. Find ways to help them and add value over and above what they could have ever expected.

5. Leverage your efforts

In a soft market many salespeople only chase the easy stuff. They don't chase the tough stuff. They're doing ok, they don't have to. They're making sales right?

Wrong.

Most salespeople have all sorts of opportunities which they squander every day and every month because there are seemingly easier things that they can be doing. This is particularly true in an industry or a company where leads have been relatively easy to come by, where sales targets are relatively soft (I could tell you which industries but I'm not going to) or where salespeople are overpaid so don't crave the business (again, I'll keep this to myself!).

In a tough market you must leverage all of your efforts. This is basic sales 101 and should be stuff that you do every day anyway... Here are just a few ideas.

Always ask for referrals. Referrals are great business but most salespeople do not ask for them because clients often say no. Learn how to ask for a referral properly and then build asking for a referral into your sales process and ask for one every time.

Upsell and cross-sell. Whether though laziness, lack of knowledge or lack of ability many salespeople sit on accounts where there is so much more business than they are currently leveraging. Extending your business with existing clients will not only make you more money, it will also strengthen your relationships with and value to them and their businesses.

Contact dormant accounts. Most companies have hundreds if not thousands of "dormant" accounts. There may be multiple reasons for this from changing business practises to fall-outs with the client. Dormant clients may well be redeemable and may have been "lost" purely because someone forgot to ring them or a salesperson moved on. Get in touch with them!

Follow up on all leads. I recently contacted 5 health insurance companies over the web. Only one replied. You should not be burning leads like this in any market. Follow up on all leads professionally using a proven sales system like the ones I teach in my sales training seminars and programmes and you will close more business. New business is the lifeblood of any business in any market.

So there we are, 5 tips to help you to sell in a recssion. This year may well prove to be an interesting year for some businesses and individuals. Some of this will be down to the market itself. Much of it will be down to you and how you react and respond to what might be a challenging year.

Here's my prediction for the year...

There will be winners and there will be losers. Which are you going to be?

Copyright (c) 2008 Gavin Ingham