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Category: Entrepreneurial

Having to do with entrepreneurs and the actions, methods, spirit, area, schedule, tips, techniques, activities, and other methodologies related to entrepreneurs.

Your Small Business May Need a Virtual Assistant – Part 2

This is the continuation of a previous post titled, Your Small Business May Need a Virtual Assistant

7. You have a blog, but do not have time to update entries regularly. Brief ideas and thoughts or links can be emailed to your VA, who then updates your blog.

8. You need a website set up, either on a directory site or using a web-hosting service. Your VA can design a custom site or adapt a template, and can maintain it on a regular basis, adding current articles or information as needed.

9. You need a telephone conversation (i.e., conference call, teleclass, etc.) recorded. The VA records the call and transcribes the tape for the participants.

10. You dictate letters, reports, notes or memos on a cassette tape and mail it to your VA via overnight delivery. Your VA transcribes the tape, prints the letters on your stationery and mails them the following day. Or, send your VA an MP3 file of your recording. S/he transcribes the audio and emails the completed transcript back to you.

11. You cannot keep up with the volume of email and are missing important messages. You or your webmaster set up a general email account (info@mycompany.com). Your VA retrieves all email, sorts, responds to routine requests, and forwards items of importance to you at your personal email account (myname@mycompany.com).

12. You are going on vacation, but can’t let your customers wait for two weeks. Your VA answers the phone and email and responds to customers. You are called for urgent calls while you are away if you want.

13. You need bill paying services. You simply have all bills mailed to a post office box near your VA. Your VA sets up a checking account with payment authorization for both you and the VA. As the bills are prepared for payment, your VA notifies you how much money to deposit into the account. The bills are then paid. Another option, if available from your bank, is to use on-line bill payment services. Security features can be set up which make this a safe and simple solution.

14. You implement an advertising plan or promo. Your VA can monitor the plan, submits ads by deadlines, track expiration dates, coordinate payment, handle correspondence with advertising vendors, and continually update the advertising report and/or advertising budget report for your review.

15. You would like to write a book, but can’t get organized. Your VA can compile rough drafts, notes, fragments, letters or memoirs and get them into an editable form to begin the process of formatting the book, research publishers, and send out queries.

Virtual assistants are here to stay. The above shows that virtual assistants can and do work well for most small and home-based businesses and especially solo-preneurs. Over the next couple of years you can expect your conversations with regards to virtual assistants to go from “What is a virtual assistant and what does a virtual assistant do?” to that of “Who provides your virtual assistant services?”

Implementing the use of a virtual assistant, especially through a virtual staffing agency, is a low-cost, low-risk undertaking. If the virtual assistant doesn’t work out, you simply request another, perhaps for a better fit. What’s more, coupling the use of a virtual assistant (or several virtual assistants) with your already up-and-coming business can catapult your income and success to the next level and beyond.

01/03/2013
Practical Steps to Building Your Business

Plan for business

Building a successful and profitable business is no easy undertaking. If you currently own a business this news is obviously not alien to you. Business owners know that building a business from ground up is dependent on many outside factors like competition, timing, market trends and demands, and other elements which you have very little control over, if any at all.

Assuming that all of these outside factors are in your favor, there are factors within your control that are as important – or even more important – as the outside factors mentioned above. One such factor is a business plan. Having a sound business plan can lead to having a successful business and long business life if the plan is adhered to.

That having been said, you will find in the following paragraphs, a number of steps to consider when building your business from the ground up.

Determine your business

What are you selling? This question isn’t as easy to answer as you may think, and to p[rove this point we’ll use a well-known sporting apparel company. Nike is in the sportswear business, but the truth is that when you buy a pair of Nike shoes and a t-shirt at the mall you’re buying a lot more than sportswear — you’re buying an image, a feeling. You’re buying the Nike brand.

Richard Thalheimer, the former CEO of The Sharper Image and the founder of RichardSolo.com, has worked in specialty retail for more than 30 years. When asked what business he’s in, he has often answered, “convenience” or “innovation” before he specifies any particular industry, and Mr. Thalheimer has built one of the most powerful brands in America.

It’s important to keep in mind, that there’s more to a product or service than the product/service itself. More often than not your brand is what sets your product apart from your competitor’s; and your brand is comprised of the kind of service you provide to your customers, quality of your product/service, company policies like “Money Back Guarantee”, “Warranty”, and other such intracacies of your company policy.

Select your market

Who are you selling to? This step is a bit less interpretive than the first, though equally important. Who are you selling to? or more importantly, what do you know about this person? Understanding your consumer is one of the keys to success. What do they do? Where do they hang out? What do they watch on television? Demographics has become one of the most important words in modern (digital age) business.

There are many demographic statistics that you should have at your disposal wehn you are building (and running) your own business. Knowing the answers to these questions can answer a lot of questions of your own when it comes to a devising a marketing strategy. Richard Thalheimer understood his market for The Sharper Image, probably as well as they understood themselves.

From an article in the LA Times some years ago, Tracy Wan, who was president and chief operating officer under Thalheimer says “Richard has the amazing ability to figure out the things that people want to have.” This ability to perceive your consumer’s desire can only be a result of knowing them like your neighbor. Understanding the demographic breakdown of your market is critical.

Create a marketing strategy

How do you speak to these people? A good marketing strategy is the culmination of understanding your brand and your market demographic. As mentioned in number two, understanding your consumer can answer a lot of questions concerning your marketing strategy: Where should you advertise? What’s the voice of your brand? What kind of prices are reasonable for this demographic?

In order to engage your consumer, (i.e. sell your product to them), you must know where your advertisements will be noticed, how to speak to them, and how much they will be able to spend, among many other things. Really, this step is really an extension of the last one, because who your market is dictates your marketing strategy entirely.

Learn by example

Seek advice from those who have done it. There are many books written by professionals who have already started their own business and have been successful in operating them. One that comes to mind immediately, as we’ve already mentioned him a couple of times, is Richard Thalheimer. With “Creating Your Own Sharper Image”, he shares the story of how – using practical, workable strategies – his tiny office supply company, The Sharper Image, grew into a thriving enterprise.

Remember, building a successful business is not all about the dollars and cents. Equally valuable is your brand equity and your ability to engage the consumer; your customers, which is only attainable by understanding them. Assuming there is a demand for your product, and you can compete with the other brands, following these four steps will guide you in the right direction.

01/03/2013
Keeping Your Assets and Liabilities in Proper Balance

Making a profit in business is derived from several different areas. It can get a little complicated because – similar to monetary activities in our personal lives – business is run on credit as well. Many businesses sell their products and services to customers on credit, and as such, adhere to certain accounting principles.

Accountants use an asset account called accounts receivables to record the total amount owed to the business by its customers who haven’t paid the balance in full yet. Much of the time, a business hasn’t collected its receivables in full by the end of the fiscal year, especially for such credit sales that could be transacted near the end of the accounting period.

The accountant will record sales revenue and the cost of goods sold for these sales in the year in which they were made and the products delivered to the customer. This is called accrual-based accounting, based on the fact that it records revenue when sales are made and records expenses when they’re incurred as well.

When sales are made on credit, the accounts receivable asset account is increased. When cash is received from customers, then the cash account is increased and the accounts receivable account is decreased. The cost of goods sold is one of the major expenses of businesses that sell goods, products or services. Even a service involves expenses.

Therefore what this means exactly is what it says: The cost that a business pays for the products it sells to customers is the cost of goods sold. A business makes its profit by selling its products at prices high enough to cover the cost of producing them, the costs of running the business, the interest on any money they’ve borrowed and income taxes, with money left over for profit.

When the business acquires products, the cost of those products goes into what’s called an inventory asset account. That cost is deducted from the cash account, or added to the accounts payable liability account, depending on whether the business has paid with cash or credit.

12/28/2012
Your Small Business May Need a Virtual Assistant
If you are the owner of a small business, you probably spent most the early years dealing with most of the duties required to keep the business operating in an efficient manner. You know the kind of duties that, though mundane in nature, are very much a part of any business or entrepreneurship:

Clerical work that includes everything from answering the phone(s) to typing up contracts and balancing the books, in addition to writing checks to merchants which, ultimately, is the task that determine whether or not you get the services necessary to keep your business operational.

Those early years in business consist of some of the longest days – and some nights – a small business person or entrepreneur has to endure. You are afforded very little time for rest or leisure because, in addition to doing what you do best (generating revenue and managing the business), you had to do everything else.

As an entrepreneur you know your time and money are worth more when you are able to concentrate on what you do best and leave the rest to an assistant. The kind of assistant you can readily afford without the need to establish workman’s compensation, or withholding and payment federal and local taxes on behalf of your employees.

I’m referring to Virtual office assistants who work from their own home-based offices and are highly trained in their skill areas as well as a variety of technologies. Many of them have advanced degrees as well as years of professional experience. Not only can a virtual assistant relieve you of mundane, everyday tasks, but also in many cases, s/he can even help you grow your business.

One of the biggest benefits to hiring a virtual assistant is the ability to delegate work to people who have better skills, and can do work you don’t know how to do, don’t have time to do, or just don’t want to do.

The next big draw (when considering virtual assistants over bricks-and-mortar assistants) is that virtual assistants only clock-in and work when you need them and use their own resources. In other words, they’re not charging you to sit there and play solitaire on a computer you purchased for them.

Here Are Some Reasons that Justify the Use of Virtual Assistants:
1. Your VA receives calls routed to his/her home office phone and your prospective customers do not receive a voice mail. You pay only for the minutes that the VA is on the phone
2. You need to confirm appointments for the week. Your VA calls the appointments and notes who is confirmed and who must be rescheduled. Your VA even updates your calendar online, if you’re using a mutually accessible calendar program.
3. By purchasing a software program that installs a desktop electronic billing system on the VA’s computer, billing can be done off-site. The software vendor technical support trains the VA to use the program, then you email or fax information to the VA, who then does daily electronic billing or accounting services to get your billing done.
4. You are preparing a marketing plan and need further information. Your VA can contact possible advertising outlets on the Internet, magazines, periodicals, newspapers, etc. and acquire information on pricing, publishing dates, publishing deadlines, payment policies, etc. All information is compiled into a report for you to review.
5. You are preparing a direct mailing and need to verify your database. The database is sent to your VA via email attachment. Your VA telephones each name and verifies name, spelling, title and address. All corrections are made, old names are deleted, and new names are added. The corrected database is “zipped” and returned to you via email attachment.
6. You need a brochure, business card or flyer for your business. Your VA can design, type and print your advertising material using your own artwork or stock art. Your VA can also make the materials ready to print by a professional print shop and simply email the file to the shop for printing.
To be continued. Look for more VA skills in our next post
11/28/2012
Running a Business on Limited Resources

Starting a new business

Running a business on limited resources is probably a skill most business owners and entrepreneurs would like to have at one time or another during their ownership of such an entity. In fact, during the last four years – between 2008 and 2012 – many businesses failed as a result of the economic crises and, perhaps, a few of them might have been saved if the proprietors could have scaled down budgets and operational expenses. Of course that’s only one person’s opinion.

Let’s take a look, though, at some of the challenges some new entrepreneurs are faced with. First off, When an individual decides to start a new business, s/he might consider going to the bank for a business loan. As long as the business plan is in order, along with the knowledge and experience necessary to successfully run the business, as well as all the necessary documents to present to the business loan lender, one would think the loan would be approved. But, believe it or not, in the majority of cases these loans are denied. You may ask why?!

Failure: A qualifying factor!

The answer is seldom one that seems satisfactory to the new business loan applicant, because it’s usually not due to readily apparent reasons, like satisfactory enough credit to back up a loan approval, or how excellent or poor a business plan is; but rather, a seemingly abstract statistic about the success-failure rate of new businesses during the first year of operation. Can you imagine being denied for a business loan and being given this as the reason, ‘you do not understand that over 90% of businesses fail within the first year, and you are not prepared in case YOUR business fails accordingly?’

While the lender became an adviser who was attempting to look out for the best interest of the applicant, it does seem rather presumptuous to not even extend the opportunity to fail. On some level, everyone that goes into business for themselves understand that chances are, the business will not make it past it’s first year, but that’s information which, in most cases, the new business owner has already taken into consideration.

Denial: Lender-defined success

Confidence in one’s ability, knowledge, experience and persistence is obviously not taken into consideration when the reason for denial is so abstract. Another potential result the business loan lender is concern with is, the new business owner is likely to spend his/her life savings before giving up, and should not be assisted in financial ruin by providing the means with which to do so. The means, of course, is busiess loan approval and subsequent issuance of proceeds.

So what does a new business person or entrepreneur do? Left with what s/he determines to be a great business idea, and everything else required to start a business, s/he does the next best thing. Go it alone! Gather whatever resources possible and set out on the adventure solo. Buy second hand office supplies and furniture. Buy the small cheap laptop instead of the multi-thousand dollar computer that would probably make life easier. Without the proper money for advertising, it would be necessary to get a little more creative than s/he might otherwise have to be.

Advertising methods would have to be unconventional, but workable. In other words, this is the stage at which Running a Business on Limited Resources becomes a required skill, and if that skill is developed and managed effectively, large amounts of money in order to get the business to the world becomes an afterthought.

Success breeds nostalgia?!

When success is achieved in your new business on limited resources, you can always engage in the “what if” nostalgia that often results when people become successful and think back on all the trials and hardships (tribulations?) they endured to achieve such success: “So would I have been so successful had the loan processor gave me the business loan?

Let’s face it, when you achieve success, especially in your own business, without money or other resources from others – even banks – you can always wonder what would have happened if you had the proper start-up money for advertising, payroll or other operational expenses, but those thoughts are quickly dismissed and replaced by Whatever the case may have been, I am glad things worked out the way they did, because as a result you are usually able to better understand some of the challenges that other entrepreneurs and new business persons face.

So how can you run your business on limited resources? Here are a few things that I learned along the way.

Tips for the business soloist

New vs. Used – When starting your business, you do not need everything to be “new.” Second hand items cost substantially less then new items, and work just as well. Plus, if you think about it, customers will be more comfortable around your office if it feels “broke-in”, rather then new and sterile. It gives them the feeling that you have been in business awhile.

Creative Advertising – You do not need the hundreds of dollars that it takes to place ads in papers or put commercials on TV. It costs very little to design and print you own flyers and put them in places where your potential clients would gather. Turn your vehicle into a moving billboard by investing in a vinyl signage for your doors or windows. The best thing? Face to Face meetings with your potential clients do not cost a penny, so look for every opportunity to talk with our potential clients.

Work At Home – Depending on your type of business, you may consider working at home rather then renting office space. This will save you a lot of money on rent and furnishing an office. Once your business becomes more successful, then you can always rent office space later. Overall, be thankful for the struggles that you go through now, because in the future, they will have been well worth it. Plus, it will give you a better understanding when it comes to other small businesses.

And, no matter what, never give up on yourself!

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11/05/2012
Blueprint for Building Your Successful Business

Study reasons for failure

Starting a business and becoming successful is often part of the American Dream. But there is a difference between starting a business and building a successful business. Many businesses fail within the first few years of existence due to the lack of planning for the long-term, in many cases because there is not enough vision and there is not enough done to properly strengthen the business from the ground up.

If you want to start a business there is an easy way to get a better understanding of why some businesses fail and others don’t. When starting a business try to think about it in terms of building a house. If done right, the house will protect you against any kind of storm or other dangerous elements from the outside world, and it will last for a long time.

Develop and follow a plan

Following the same line of reasoning for your business, as the house offer shelter and protection because it was constructed properly, your business will offer economical well-being when It is built properly. For you and your business the translation is, you want to have a business that is able to weather economical ups and downs (a la the storm in our house example) and that will provide income to pay the bills (a la shelter and protection in our house example).

When building a house there are several different steps you must take in order to have that house built properly. You know you want a house, but first you have to pick a location and get an architect to draw up a plan and a set of specifications. In the business world that would translate to: You know you want to start a business, but you have to come up with a business idea and develop a business plan.

Lay a solid foundation

The next step for the house would be to build a foundation (and eventually the basement) for the house. In the business scenario, you have to build the initial infrastructure (example: connecting with vendors, finding a manufacturer , creating a sales team, renting office space, getting a delivery truck, etc.). Once that is in place you’ll be able to actually do business and earn some money.

However, you are not completely done yet, because you still need to build a frame, put in windows and install a roof on the house. Similarly for , you’d have to pay off debt, improve business processes and get professional help when needed (example: find a tax accountant, select a payroll service, etc.).

Once the house is built you probably want to furnish it and make sure the interior is suitable for your family’s comfort and safety for present time as well as years in the future. Obviously nobody wants to sleep on the floor, if a bed and other furniture is available.

Reinvest in your business!

This stage of the house construction, which is close to completion, is translated to building the business in the sense that you are investing money you earned back into your business. Business owners reinvesting in their businesses is something that is done routinely. One example of that is buying machinery instead of leasing it.

Eventually the business buys a building, hire more staff, , move into new markets, build up a high cash reserve, and buy other businesses and so forth. This is often the step where winners and losers separate. Re-investing money into the business is a key factor for success. If you go and spend all the money on your own salary to buy personal things, you have nothing to go back to when the economy slips into a recession or some kind of disaster.

Build up a cash reserve

The successful business owner has built up a cash reserve or can borrow money from a bank – securing loans with the assets of the business. Going back to building a house this pretty much matches the same efforts.

You pay off your mortgage and have equity available to eventually borrow against when emergency arises. Emergencies do not include paying off credit cards to use them again or to buy a car. Financially responsible owners (home or business) should be looking at the long term and not finance short-term goods with long-term debt.

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10/23/2012