Business Planning
Ideas
Financing for your
Business For many
growing companies, a large percentage of working capital is tied up
in accounts receivable. Some businesses that extend credit have as
much as 20 percent of their annual sales outstanding. Of course,
receivables help to grow your company's balance sheet but they're
not much use when you need money.
One way to get a quick infusion of cash is to turn to a
little-known service
called "factoring." With this option, your company sells its
accounts receivable to a bank or financing firm and it assumes the
risk of collection Click here for
more information.
Flexible Spending
Accounts provide
tax-free benefits for employees and tax savings for employers. These
tax incentive based programs are good for employers and employees
and their tax savings can offset the costs.
Increasing Company
Profits Involves ALL Employees
It's easy for employees to begin
to view their jobs narrowly, and forget that they may be able
to contribute to the economic health of the business. Ask your
staff, including managers and supervisors, to compile a checklist of
ways that each department can meet — and exceed — the company’s
profit projections. If they know to look for, your employees
will come up with dozens of suggestions
Avoiding Harassment
Claims It's probably
impossible for your company to eliminate any chance of
harassment, but there are precautions you can take to help win a
lawsuit filed by an employee.
Resolve Customer Billing Disputes
Promptly If you find that more than
five to 10 percent of your accounts receivable are
late because they are lying in the "dispute" category, take
corrective action to shift them into the "paid"
category
Accounts Receivable Receivables don’t have much value if
they aren’t turned into cash.Your company really needs to keep
tight control on its invoices outstanding so you can get an accurate
picture of the receivables situation and take steps to improve the
turnover of those accounts.
Intellectual Property One of the most costly— yet easily
prevented — disasters for any business is the failure to secure
ownership of intellectual property (IP).
Employee Hiring and
Compensation Salaries are a tough expense for most
businesses. You want to hold them down but reigning them in too
tightly doesn't always work well. Good employees can find work
elsewhere and replacing them can cost a bundle.So, if you're in a spot where every salary
dollar counts, here are eight ideas for getting the biggest bang for
your buck.
Business Method
Patents It may be possible for you to get a
patent on the way you do business and prevent rivals from
stealing your unique approach.
Employee Benefit Cost
Sharing The national average paid out by
employers for employee benefits is 39 percent of total payroll
costs. Cost sharing is the only practical solution for
employers.
Keeping Good
Employees In today’s
competitive marketplace, you probably want employees who have more
than education and experience. Most likely, you’re also looking for
people with creativity, attitude, personality and
goals. Just
make sure you have the type of workplace where ambitious,
high-energy staff members can thrive. Here are seven smart workplace
characteristics that can keep top employees
satisfied.
Add-Ons Can Bring More Sales and Happier
Customers Train your sales people in ways to double or triple
sales by using the “add-on” technique.
Business Gift Giving - Increasing the
Deduction Uncle Sam can be stingy when it comes to
business gifts. In general, you can only write off up to $25 per
person per year. But there’s a tax-wise maneuver that can increase
your deduction if you want to be more generous.
Keeping Corporate
Profit -You're allowed to retain cash for legitimate,
reasonable future business needs. Here's
how.
Direct Mail Marketing -
Despite the popularity of
e-marketing, direct mail still works for many companies. How well it
works depends on a number of variables. It's a game of
percentages.Here are tips to help improve your company's odds of
success.
Bankruptcy May be the
Answer - Strugglng
Businesses Get a Second Chance in Bankruptcy, The "automatic
stay" provision of the bankruptcy code gives companies a chance to
get back on the right track. It provides relief from collection
actions by creditors and even affects the IRS. Moreover, it can make
it easier to obtain credit.
Leasing Equipment may save
money Prudent businesses often choose to lease rather than buy
equipment, vehicles and facilities. Leasing can be advantageous but
the type of agreement you sign is important. When presented
with lease options, you'll find the ones with the longest terms are
generally the cheapest. But you may want to opt for a short-term
version instead. Why? If you should experience a business
downturn, a long-term lease can be the shortest route to the
poorhouse.
Collecting From Out of State
Customers - Collecting bad debts from out of state customers can be
difficult. here are some ideas.
Track Your Best
Customers One way to
ensure that you’re delivering the highest level of service to your
trophy customers is to give them each a code. It helps your staff
identify them and give them the kind of service you want to
provide.
Business
Negotiations. A
good salesperson is usually able to get to the negotiating
table. Once there, however, it takes a great salesperson to close
the deal. The difference often comes down to an ability to negotiate
skillfully. Here are nine negotiating tools to help salespeople
improve their closing percentages.....
Simple "Thank You" can improve
your business. In today's electronic age when businesses look for new ways
to improve profit, we sometimes forget that simple, time-honored
gestures often work best. And it takes only two words: Thank You.
Writing thank you notes may sound like an obvious tactic, but
surprisingly, few companies do it. That's precisely why it will set
you apart from the competition
12 Steps to increase
Profits. Chances are, you have some great ideas on ways
to increase profits at your company. But it takes more than ideas to
make progress. It takes specific goals and a plan that will put feet
under your ideas
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