Category avoid growing pain

Entries 34 Total

Small Business Infrastructure For Business Start-Up.

Aug 28, ’07 12:42 PM
Author Stefan Töpfer (Editor) Categories Accountants/CPAs, Accounting, Business Ideas, Contractor, DIY Business, Data Security, Development, E-Commerce, Employment, Entrepreneur, Exporting, Finance, Franchise, Freelancer, Generation-Y, Globalization 3.0, Green/Eco-Friendly, Health Check, Home Business, How to ..., Infrastructure, Infrastructure, Lifestyle, Marketing/PR, Mobile Technology, MumEntrepreneur, Office - IT, Outsourcing, Personal Business, Red-Tape, Relationships, SOHO/SMB/SME/Micro, Sales, Self-employed, Small Business / SOHO, Social Entrepreneur, Software as a Service, Sole-Trader, Start-Up, Suppliers, Virtual Assistants, Web Technology, WinWeb, WinWeb Live™, Work/Life Balance, avoid growing pain, be eco-friendly, be successful, bootstrap, choose your office, deal with taxes, do a SWOT plan, do a reality check, do bookkeeping., do cost cutting, do credit control, export, find funding, grow your business, handle problems, keep data safe, lower overheads, market and sell, motivate your staff, outsource effectively, plan cash-flow, plan your business, start-up in business, use online IT

I get regular questions about what we really mean by WinWeb’s Small Business Infrastructure?

On-demand Small Business Infrastructure™ centers around the idea that business start-ups and growing small businesses need help with numerous administrative tasks that are not core to the business success – such as bookkeeping, it services, internet services, call handling and other such services.

These services – if performed by the business owner – cause a great deal of time wasting – while the fixed cost of a business is still accumulating. This is in our minds a fatally floored business model and can easily be remedied with our infrastructure approach.

We should not expect business start-ups and small business in general to be accountants, bookkeepers, lawyers, marketing & PR gurus and so on. We should provide small business with an infrastructure in which it can concentrate on core business tasks, while at the same time enabling the business owner to stay informed of all relevant business facts like cash flow, sales, HR issues, tax position and more. This will enable him / her to make informed decisions, maybe with the help of an external advisor.

Based on these facts, we have devised a six point on-demand Small Business Infrastructure™ concept, which consist of:

1. WinWeb On-Demand Software Solutions – Anywhere At Anytime.

AccountsOffice and OnlineOffice are our two software offerings, which are based on the SaaS – Software as a Services model, to allow for the following key business benefits:

• tight inclusion of business advisors from the start,
• cultivating outsourcing techniques at the outset, i.e. virtual assistants,
• no IT knowledge needed and hassle free operation,
• real-time multi-user access from anywhere, increasing mobility.

2. WinWeb 24/7 Live Support – We Are Here For You Always.

Providing customer care and support only during business hours is not acceptable to our clients. Experience has shown us that most admin work gets done by small business before nine in the morning or after five in the evening. This practice is essential if the business is to survive it’s early years.

This is why we have provided our much acclaimed customer support for 24 hours a day, seven days a week from the outset. Saving our clients wasted time and money – while setting new standards in customer support. No manuals need to be read – all problems can be solved in real-time online.

3. WinWeb Live – Networking Community for Small Business Only.

To foster collaboration and outsourcing we have expanded our WinWeb Live™ offering to allow for small business community networking – thus enabling the business owner to make decisions about his / her current needs, with the following benefits:

• timeshare virtual assistants for professional results,
• offer contracts of work to contractors on a case-by-case basis,
• promote the business to a large audience or even locally,
• find new work and contracts online

4. Business Advice

Our On-Demand Small Business Infrastructure™ enables business advisors, accountants, bookkeepers and other advisors to have a “Up Close and Personal” relationship with the small business owner, providing key elements for the success of a small business:

• timely and up-to-date advice from anywhere at anytime,
• more efficient advisor function due to SaaS technology, less travel,
• easily expandable advisor network.

5. Solution Partners

Third parties provide external services to complement our services, such as parcel service, office supply services, printing services. These and other services are provided on a bulk buy arrangements by leading businesses in their respective sectors – to provide the most reliable and up-to date service possible – with the effect of enhancing the professional appearance of our clients.

6. ClimateByte™ Technology – For A Cleaner Future.

Our clients are among the biggest demographics concerned with climate change and carbon footprint neutrality. It is a fact that employing remote working and collaboration techniques drastically reduces the damaging business side affects on our environment. We enable our clients to be more eco-friendly and aware, by providing them with our green technology – an ongoing development commitment of WinWeb.

WinWeb welcomes any suggestion that will further enhance our On-Demand Small Business Infrastructure™ concept – especially the development of even more eco-friendly business processes – to serve our small business and business start-up client-base.

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Small Business Failure – Reason: Management Control

Aug 28, ’07 12:41 PM
Author Stefan Töpfer (Editor) Categories Business Ideas, Development, Employment, Entrepreneur, Failure, Health Check, Lifestyle, Marketing/PR, Relationships, Sales, Small Business / SOHO, Start-Up, avoid growing pain, do a SWOT plan, do a reality check, do bookkeeping., do credit control, grow your business, handle problems, lower overheads, market and sell, motivate your staff, not to do it!, plan cash-flow, plan your business, recruit the right people, start-up in business

The typical scenario is you work hard all week, have no live and at the end of it all little money to show for it. This is often a sure sign of loss of management control in a small business and start-up business, like SOHO-, SME, SMB-, Micro-, Lifestyle-, Home-, DIY-, Hobby-, Boomer-, Professional-, Personal businesses.

The small business health-check questions for this episode are:

  • Do I know what is going on in my business in all areas or have I abdicated some responsibility to staff? You can pick and choose what you do work-wise everyday, you can not pick and choose what you should know about and make decisions about – this is your business, not your staffs business – act like it.
  • Am I running my business or is it running “itself”? No business is running itself, other than into the ground!
  • Do you know how your cash-flow is doing? Done this one before, yet it always comes back to this, check it out.
  • Do you have an overview of your small business fixed costs and sales, are you happy with the situation? I guess you could always do better, but if you do not know the details you can not improve your situation.
  • Is your vision in line with your small business targets? You need a vision for your business, that will allow you to develop your small business strategy and plan, so you know where you are going – don’t just drift along.
  • Have you asked your staff lately? Have a power-meeting with your staff once a week, to see how they are feeling about your small business, last week or the next few weeks. It will motivate them and give you a new insight in how others see your small business.

The central message here is to be involved in ALL areas of your business ALL of the time – in a management capacity. When I hire people I always hire people who do something better than I, but you have to stay involved.

You can see other reasons for small business and personal business, like contractors, freelancer, self-employed, sole-trader and virtual assistants failures in my Health Check Category, if you can add to this list please do so, I would welcome your comments.

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Cost Cutting for Small Business – Payment Terms

Aug 24, ’07 3:37 PM
Author Stefan Töpfer (Editor) Categories Boomer Business, Business Ideas, Contractor, E-Commerce, Entrepreneur, Finance, Freelancer, Generation-Y, Home Business, Lifestyle, Outsourcing, Personal Business, Relationships, SOHO/SMB/SME/Micro, Self-employed, Small Business / SOHO, Social Entrepreneur, Sole-Trader, Start-Up, Suppliers, Virtual Assistants, avoid growing pain, bootstrap, do a reality check, do cost cutting, do credit control, find funding, grow your business, handle problems, lower overheads, outsource effectively, plan cash-flow, plan your business, recruit the right people, start-up in business, use online IT

There are two ways to get better payment terms from your suppliers – make sure you know what the pricing is and negotiate the payment terms last, without warning. Most businesses do not expect small business and start-up business, like SOHO-, SME, SMB-, Micro-, Lifestyle-, Home-, DIY-, Hobby-, Boomer-, Professional-, Personal businesses to negotiate payment terms, so you have the element of surprise on your side – and it makes you look more professional.

Firstly there is the extended payment term, of 60, 90 and 180 days – see if your supplier will allow any of those terms. Even if they only give you 60 days, you can always go back after 3-4 month using this payment terms in which you have shown to be trustworthy. If it is declined and only 30 days are offered – because you have no history – then this is the perfect scenario of our second method.

Early payment discounts of 2% if you pay within 7 days. This is like a 24% p.a. discount on the invoice value, not a bad way to compensate for the overdraft interest charges from your bank.

Surly you supplier is interested in your business, and is not going to decline both offers – you win either way – if they decline, then look for a new supplier. Because you are not only helping yourself with your cash-flow, but theirs too.

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Small Business Failure – Reason: Cash-Flow

Aug 24, ’07 11:37 AM
Author Stefan Töpfer (Editor) Categories Failure, Health Check, Outsourcing, Small Business / SOHO, Start-Up, Virtual Assistants, avoid growing pain, bootstrap, deal with taxes, do a SWOT plan, do a reality check, do bookkeeping., do credit control, grow your business, handle problems, lower overheads, not to do it!, outsource effectively, plan cash-flow, plan your business, recruit the right people, start-up in business, use online IT

The first post in this mini series is related to this issue of cash-flow and so will be many that follow. Cash-flow is the central and most critical management objective for every small business and start-up business, like SOHO-, SME, SMB-, Micro-, Lifestyle-, Home-, DIY-, Hobby-, Boomer-, Professional-, Personal business.

T o perform this small business health-check, ask your self the following questions:

  • Do I have a written plan and cash-flow forecast for my business? As I said before, without it it is like driving with your eyes shut.
  • Am I efficient in achieving those aims? We often allow non-core issues and irrelevant stuff to “steal” our time, or we are so overwhelmed by work that we do not have the time to stand back and look at our small business – take the time and make those decisions.
  • Do you have a feel how my small business works financially? If not, you must be feeling uncomfortable most of the time, again take the time and feel better about your small business.
  • When did I plan and monitor my cash-flow last? You need to do this at least once a week or if something happens that is not in the plan. Check your cash-flow each time before you make a bigger purchase or hire staff which is not in the plan, you will quiet easily see if you can afford to do it or not.
  • How much reserves does my business have? The best peace of mind is when your small business has substantial reserves, do you have any or are you at least planning to get a 2-3 month reserve buffer?
  • Have I re-negociated my terms with my suppliers? What if your suppliers gave you 60 or even 90 days payment terms – put that in your cash-flow and smile, it’s instant reserve. You need to pay your suppliers on time, only then will they trust you enough to give you the extra long payment terms.
  • Am I chasing my clients for payment adequately? Do you know the average number of days you clients need to pay you? Give incentives – 2 % off if you pay within 7 days – try and keep your average well below 30 days. If you have not enough time to do credit control outsource it.
  • Do I need my overdraft? If you get better payment terms fro your suppliers and do a better job at credit control, you may not need your overdraft anymore, which will save you a lot of money. Don’t cancel your overdraft, but make sure you only pay for it when and if you use it – shop around. On those terms you should get an overdraft, even if you do not need it, so if something unexpected happens you got the cash-flow reserve.

The importance of your cash-flow situation can not be overestimated, as long as you can pay your bills you are in business - as the saying goes: Cash Is King!

You can see other reasons for small business and personal business, like contractors, freelancer, self-employed, sole-trader and virtual assistants failures in my Health Check Category, if you can add to this list please do so, I would welcome your comments.

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Small Business Failure – Reason: Fixed Cost

Aug 23, ’07 9:37 PM
Author Stefan Töpfer (Editor) Categories Failure, Health Check, Outsourcing, Small Business / SOHO, Start-Up, Virtual Assistants, avoid growing pain, bootstrap, do a SWOT plan, do a reality check, do bookkeeping., do credit control, grow your business, lower overheads, not to do it!, outsource effectively, plan cash-flow, plan your business, start-up in business

I have decided to write a little mini series on why small business and personal businesses, like contractors, freelancer, self-employed, sole-trader and virtual assistants, fail and how to find out if your small business is in danger, too.

In this first part, I would like to talk about fixed costs in small business. To perform a basic small business fixed cost health check, ask yourself the following questions:

  • Do I know where all the money is going every month? You should know where all your money is going at all times – if you don not know, it is important that you find out.
  • How comfortable am I with the current level of costs? Are you able to generate reserves in your small business, or is your business just making ends meet.
  • Are large parts of the costs for non-core business tasks and do I get value for my money? No matter how well your business is doing, you should never waste money – so if you can outsource do it, it will make you small business more focused and far more resilient and efficient.
  • Do I have a cash-flow forecast for my business? Having no cash-flow plan is like driving with your eyes closed – cash-flow planning is easy, and you will have a better feeling about your small business.
  • Are there any spending issues with business partners or colleagues? Are other people spending your money (?) and you can not control them – deal with it, sort it or get rid of them even if they are partners in the business, find a way or get help.
  • Am I in control of my spending or have I abdicated this function to someone else? Even if you have staff – outsourced of employed – doing your bookkeeping and organize the payments for you, you need to make the decisions of when your suppliers get paid, so you can control your cash-flow.

There are many more questions you could ask yourself, here I just wanted to get you going. If you have any more issues or are uncomfortable with any of your costs and answers to the above questions, then you should get some professional advice.

Running out of money is the reason most small business and start-up business, like SOHO-, SME, SMB-, Micro-, Lifestyle-, Home-, DIY-, Hobby-, Boomer-, Professional-, Personal businesses, fail – not controlling your fixed costs is one of the main reasons for this.

You can see other reasons for small business and personal business, like contractors, freelancer, self-employed, sole-trader and virtual assistants failures in my Health Check Category, if you can add to this list please do so, I would welcome your comments.

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Small Business Checklist: Home Office & Home Business

Aug 23, ’07 10:01 AM
Author Stefan Töpfer (Editor) Categories Business Checklists, Entrepreneur, Freelancer, Green/Eco-Friendly, Home Business, Infrastructure, Lifestyle, Mobile Technology, MumEntrepreneur, Office - IT, Outsourcing, Personal Business, Relationships, Self-employed, Small Business / SOHO, Social Entrepreneur, Software as a Service, Sole-Trader, Start-Up, Virtual Assistants, Web Technology, WinWeb, Work/Life Balance, avoid growing pain, be eco-friendly, bootstrap, choose your office, grow your business, keep data safe, lower overheads, outsource effectively, plan cash-flow, plan your business, start-up in business, use online IT

As part of a bootstrapping exercise or a business start-up phase, working from home is a great way to work, so I thought of some points to consider when setting up your office, small business or personal business, like contractors, freelancer, self-employed, sole-trader and virtual assistants at home:

  1. Cost – you will save a lot of money and be very eco-friendly when you decide not to rent an office, this saving can be used in other areas of your business, like marketing, better web-site or better IT.
  2. Family – I suspect that many of you work from home because of your family, it allows you to be around when your kids come home from school or look after relatives, while still earning a living.
  3. Commuting – again a very eco-friendly approach and saves money and time. This time can be spend on real business activities. It certainly will enhance your work/life balance and make your small business or start-up more cost efficient form day one.
  4. Freedom – this may especially appeal to you if you like to work at odd hours, it will suit your lifestyle. Dress as you like it, so you will be more comfortable.
  5. Healthy – if you work in an office and one of you gets ill, soon all the others are down too – not if you work from home.
  6. Teamwork – chances are you need to work with other people, use online technology to collaborate with your colleagues and other team workers – they too may work from home.
  7. Domestic Life – you’ll be around when the plumber finally turns up or other trades people. You can enjoy your local life more – by having a social network in your village rather than at work – this could be the return of the local community.
  8. Small Business Infrastructure – use online technology to keep your data and work safe at all times without that you have to do anything, build your own virtual Small Business Team to timeshare professionals like yourself. Outsource to make your business more professional and scalable.
  9. Meetings – even bigger businesses use coffee shops to meet – they often have WiFi – so can you. Make sure you plan them well, so you can be efficient with your time.
  10. Eco-Friendly – you will only heat your home, no other workplace needs to be heated or air-conditioned, your energy efficiency goes up, no travel to work – so you reduce your carbon footprint enormously just by working from home.

You will need some pretty good reasons to go to an office and work. Especially for small business and start-up business, like SOHO-, SME, SMB-, Micro-, Lifestyle-, Home-, DIY-, Hobby-, Boomer-, Professional-, Personal business, you need to ask yourself if you can afford to miss out on all the above opportunities for your work and for your life?

I work from home over 90% of the time and only go to the office for meetings and I love every minute of this. I use social network communities like linkedIn to build my professional network, utilizing our online office, skype and other tools to communicate and work worldwide.

More and more of my friends work from home so we have nice “pub-lunches” locally, no traveling, less stress and a much better work/life balance – how is your work/life balance?

For more of my checklists see the Small Business Checklists category and as always please add to my list with your comments, tell us what works for you.

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Marketing for Small Business and Business Start-Up

Aug 21, ’07 7:39 AM
Author Stefan Töpfer (Editor) Categories Marketing/PR, Small Business / SOHO, Start-Up, avoid growing pain, grow your business, market and sell, motivate your staff, plan your business, start-up in business

Starting, owning and growing a small business calls for many skills sets to be used by the owner, financial planning, people management, having a vision and development of a strategy, operational skills, technical, sales and marketing skills. They are all equally important – so lets have a look at marketing.

What is marketing? A fundamental marketing concept is Customer Value Proposition (CVP) - to succeed with your small business your must:

  • Offer the right product or service
  • To your targeted clients and customers
  • At the right price
  • Creating the perception of value
  • In a profitable manner

Consider these points when developing your marketing plan – a CVP should be part of your strategic plan and be inline with your efficiency efforts for your small business.

If you have more than one customer/client segments your small business and start-up business, like SOHO-, SME, SMB-, Micro-, Lifestyle-, Home-, DIY-, Hobby-, Boomer-, Professional-, Personal business, is active in than you need to have more than one CVP, but most of the time small business will focus on one customer group and develop into a niche:

the newspaper shop – to provide newspapers and a small selection of consumer goods in a local (convenient) community with convenient opening hours and a good customer service (friendly) which can demand a slightly higher price

or

the online business – to provide a complete range of products within a market segment, which is available to purchase 24 hrs a day, every day at the lowest possible price with fast delivery using user-friendly online shopping technology

Create your own CVP – Customer Value Proposition for your own small business – again it will help you to focus on what is important (core) and what can be outsourced (non-core). Maybe you can share your CVP with us here?

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