small business

Even during a good economy, starting a small business and building it into a success is a hard task. When times are tough, like they certainly are now, it can be almost impossible. The ironic part is, or one of them at least, is that small business growth is a common indicator used during a recession to determine how, or if, the economy is improving.

When you’re a small business, rising expenses that bigger companies find as an inconvenience may be what puts your profit margin in the red, for good. Sometimes little things such as an increase in gas prices at the pump, higher taxes or a few extra cents for stamps are things that can really make staying afloat difficult.

Contrary to what most small business owners think, financing a business is not rocket science. In fact, there are only three main ways to do it: via debt, equity or what I call “do it yourself” financing.

Each method comes with benefits and drawbacks you should be aware of. At various stages in your business’s life cycle, one or more of these methods may be appropriate. Therefore, a thorough understanding of each method is important if you think you may ever need to secure financing for your business.

Business professionals and their clients want an easy, more streamlined means to make and receive payments. E-checks, or the Automated Clearing House (ACH), allow payments to be processed via the internet and offer a multitude of benefits.

1. Save money. No more wire transfer or credit card processing fees. E-checks are transferred directly from the consumer's account to the merchant's. Money, time and other valuable resources are no longer spent on processing payments. Since the entire transaction, from invoice to payment to receipt, is handled digitally, with a lower payment processing fee, merchants stand to reduce their bottom line.

In the restaurant industry speed and efficiency within operating procedures directly affect company profit margins. Restaurant owners are continually searching for new ways to save money and make order placing a much more speedy process.

A recent press release from Dinerware who is a leading restaurant software company announced their release of SpeedMenu. SpeedMenu is a mobile menuing, ordering and payment service that enables guests to add, close and pay out their tabs via their Internet-enabled mobile devices.

When Designing Promotional Products, Aspect Ratio can Make or Break You

If you’re like most small business owners, you probably don’t spend a lot of time thinking about your logo’s aspect ratio. A lot of people don’t. But seemingly small changes in the aspect ratio – the proportion of your logo’s height to width – can really change the readability and overall look of your logo.

The term document can refer to any number of things. Regardless of what type of business you are in, somewhere or somehow you have documents of some kind. A document can be an interoffice memo, employee personnel records, an invoice containing purchase information, a draft press release or the office electrical bill.

It’s hard to believe that mobile phones have been with us for nearly 30 years, they no longer look like something you could build a wall with, now they’re sleek stylish and for most people a fashion accessory. Long gone are the days when your phone was used only to make calls, now they are an extension of you, they keep you connected with the whole world around you.

Cell phones have now become our new best friend and constant companion; they are there when we go to sleep and when we turn off the alarm in the morning. Because they are such an integral part of our lives retailers are doing everything in their powers to become a part of this. Some of the world’s largest chain stores see mobile retailing as a new sales stream. In short it won’t be to long before there are 4 recognised sales channels, Store, Catalogue, Web and Mobile. The lessons learned with the dot com bubble will ensure mobile retailing will be a home run. The other big advantage is that mobile retailing will also help to facilitate sales in the more traditional sales channels.

The biggest challenge for marketing professionals a decade ago was getting online, and transforming their mass communications-style marketing efforts into more segmented online models.

But now that online marketing is a standard element of every company’s efforts, one expert believes that many of those campaigns are falling short because companies don’t use newer technologies aimed at tracking their online tactics.

1. Decide on what kind of website you want to create, ideally a field you’re an expert in i.e. a website about Ferrari sports cars. Then draw up a draft of your website on paper, outlining what layout you’d like, as well as the content needed; text, pictures, videos and links.

2. Then use website creation software to design your site; some good ones are Adobe Dreamweaver and Microsoft Publisher. If you don’t want to pay for website development software, some websites have online tools for this purpose, such as Google Sites, or you can download Webplus from free Serif software’s website.

Many in the West look to China as an exceptionally low-cost sourcing resource for manufactured goods. However, for those who are accustomed to dealing with contract manufacturing in Western markets, the first ventures into Chinese manufacturing will require a major readjustment in business approaches and expectations.