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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.

  • Is There An Ideal Time To Publish Your Articles?

    The Password Creation Handbook!
    Digital Paperback

    Today’s post is special for a couple of reasons. First it has brought back some memories about my own early days on the Web; and Second it is a rather inspiring account of the author’s own recollection of his early Web publishing efforts. When you think about it, the vastness of this Internet community/marketplace could be very intimidating.

    My memories – as conjured up by the article I’m about to share with you – are vivid and, as a Web marketer going on 5 years with a pretty decent demand for my articles, I share the following article with the knowledge that, in order for any entrepreneur or marketer to be successful on the Web, s/he MUST be able to communicate effectively with the community; and the best way to be effective is to be honest to yourself and your audience.

    Here’s the entire article – which was shared with me – authorized for republishing by, and with a few words of introduction from, my reliable copywriting buddy at the Copywriter’s Roundtable:

    Today, I’ll share what might be the weirdest (and best) invitation you’ll hear all year. But first, a challenge. This comes to us via our Kiwi pal and fellow copywriter, Sean D’Souza. What’s the challenge? By way of explanation, I happen to know that a lot of you guys are not just aspiring copywriters… but aspiring writers in general. Sean, too, was once in your shoes.

    And then he did something about it. Today, he’s going to challenge you to do something about it too. Even if the kind of his writing he’s recommending ISN’T something on your wordsmithing bucket list, I encourage you to read on — simply substitute the kind of writing you want to do with the kind Sean talks about here.

    Sean, take it away…

    WHEN’S THE RIGHT TIME TO PUBLISH YOUR ARTICLE?
    by Sean D’Souza

    Imagine a daughter who’s about to utter her first word. For a long time her expectant parents have been waiting to guess what that first word would be. Would it be ‘dada’ or ‘mama’? Or something else altogether? And then she says it! There are whoops of joy. Except this daughter is not really a baby. She’s a woman at the ‘ripe, old age’ of 35. And there’s nothing wrong with the woman at all.

    NAVAN Global, the REAL SEAL!

    She was just waiting for the right moment to say her first word. Yes, I know it’s a ridiculous story But it’s not any more ridiculous than you waiting for the right moment to publish your article. As we go through writing articles, we believe that our articles aren’t quite good enough to post on our websites or blogs. So we salt them, in the hope that we’ll write better articles in the future.

    If I’d waited for the future, you wouldn’t be reading this article. When I started writing articles way back in the year 2000, I struggled with my articles. I didn’t feel they were good enough. And besides I had one massive problem. I felt like a fraud, because I was a cartoonist and knew nothing about marketing. But I’d read an article in the Reader’s Digest when I was a child. The title of the article was “Be brave and mighty forces will be with you.”

    So I gave in to mighty forces. I published my articles. And to my surprise, others not only wanted to read them, but wanted to publish them as well. And while it took us over a year back then, over a thousand people subscribed. One thousand people were reading my ‘crappy’ articles. And it didn’t stop there. I then wrote this document called The Brain Audit. It was only 20 pages long, including some fillers. And at first it was a trickle of customers that bought it, but soon we had hundreds of people buying it.

    I’m sure you’ve heard this story before, but we had sold over $50,000 worth of The Brain Audit in that form; And it was only then that it got upgraded. (Today The Brain Audit is 180 pages and far more polished); but what if I had waited for the perfect moment? What if my articles still needed polish? What if I had believed that The Brain Audit was too anorexic to publish?

    Be brave! Go ahead and publish your stuff. And then be surprised, just like I was.
    The article ends, hope you liked it.

    Note to the reader: John at Copywriter’s Roundtable has invited you to sign up for $78 worth of free gifts at the Copywriter’s Rountable. John is a very reliable, down to earth and principled individual, so you WILL get your gifts when you sign up.

    As a token of our appreciation the free ebook titled, Storytelling Marketing can be yours if you have any interest in the art of storytelling. All you have to do is download it here, enjoy the reading and learn how storytelling can be a powerful ally in any business or marketing pursuit!

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  • Making Your Accounting Principles Acceptable




    It would be very easy for an employee to expect fair treatment from professionals within the company s/he’s employed with. To expect them to act within the precepts of the Golden Rule: “Do Unto Others as You Would Have Them do Unto You” which, if company management were to engage in such honorable behavior, workers would have little or nothing to worry about. But that’s not the case and therefore principles and systems must be employed.

    If everyone involved in the process of accounting followed their own system, or no system at all, there would be no way to truly tell whether a company was profitable or not. Most companies follow what is commonly referred to as GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles), and there are huge tomes in libraries and bookstores devoted to just this one topic.

    Unless a company states otherwise, anyone reading a financial statement can make the assumption that company has used GAAP. If GAAP is not the set of principles used for preparing financial statements, then a business needs to make clear which other form of accounting they have used and are bound to avoid using titles in its financial statements that could mislead the person examining it.

    GAAP is the gold standard for preparing financial statements and/or a financial report. Not disclosing that it has used principles other than GAAP makes a company legally liable for any misleading or misunderstood data. These principles have been fine-tuned over decades and have effectively governed accounting methods and the financial reporting systems of businesses.

    Different principles have been established for different types of business entities, such as for-profit and NFP (Not For Profit) companies/organizations, governments and other enterprises. GAAP is not cut and dried, however. They’re guidelines and, as such, are often open to interpretation. Estimates have to be made at times, and they require good faith efforts towards accuracy.

    You have probably heard the phrase “creative accounting,” which is when a company pushes the envelope a little (or a lot) too far to make their business look more profitable than it might actually be. This is also known as massaging the numbers, a practice that can spiral out of control and quickly turn into accounting fraud (or cooking the books). The results of these practices can be devastating and ruinous to hundreds and thousands of lives, as in the cases of Enron, Rite Aid and others.

  • Can Financial Window Dressing Help Your Business?


     

    Financial managers can do certain things to increase or decrease net income that’s recorded in the year. This is called profit smoothing, income smoothing or just plain old window dressing. This isn’t the same as fraud, or cooking the books, though, just in case that thought had crossed your mind.

    Most profit smoothing involves pushing some amount of revenue and/or expenses into other years than they would normally be recorded. A common technique for profit smoothing is to delay normal maintenance and repairs. This is referred to as deferred maintenance. Many routine and recurring maintenance costs required for autos, trucks, machines, equipment and buildings can be delayed, or deferred until later.

    A business that spends a significant amount of money for employee training and development may delay these programs until the next year so the expense in the current year is lower. A company can also cut back on its current year’s outlays for market research and product development.

    Some businesses might ease up on their rules regarding when slow-paying customers are written off to expense as bad debts or uncollectible accounts receivable. These businesses can put off recording some of their bad debts expense until the next reporting year.

    A fixed asset that is not being actively used may have very little current or future value to a business. Instead of writing off the un-depreciated cost of the impaired asset as a loss in the current year, the business might delay the write-off until the next year.

    You can see how manipulating the timing of certain expenses can make an impact on net income. This isn’t illegal although companies can go too far in massaging the numbers so that its financial statements are misleading. For the most part though, profit smoothing isn’t much more than robbing Peter to pay Paul.

    Accountants refer to these as compensatory effects. The effects next year offset and cancel out the effects in the current year. Less expense this year is balanced by more expense the next year. The important thing is knowing how far to push the envelope in these kinds of maneuvers and keep yourself and your company out of trouble with the IRS, ’cause that kind of a problem you just don’t need.

     

  • Is Disclosure Mandated to Complete Financial Reports?




    Financial statements are the backbone of a complete financial report. In fact, a financial report is not complete if the three primary financial statements are not included. but a financial report is much more than just those statements. A financial report requires disclosures. This term refers to additional information provided in a financial report.

    Therefore, any comprehensive and ethical financial report must include not only the primary financial statements, but disclosures as well.

    The chief executive of a business (usually the CEO in a publicly held corporation) has the primary responsibility to make sure that the financial statements have been prepared according to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) and the financial report provides adequate disclosures. He or she works with the chief financial officer or controller of the business to make sure that the financial report meets the standard of adequate disclosures.

    Some common methods of disclosures include:

    • Footnotes that provide information about the basic figures. Nearly all financial statements require footnotes to provide additional information for several of the account balances in the financial statements.
    • Supplementary financial schedules and tables that provide more details than can be included in the body of the financial statements.
    • Other information may be required if the business is a public corporation subject to federal regulations regarding financial reporting to its stockholders. Other information is voluntary and not strictly required legally or according to GAAP.

    Some disclosures are required by various governing boards and agencies. These include:

    • The financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has designated many standards. Its dictate regarding disclosure of the effects of stock options is one such standard.
    • The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) mandates disclosure of a broad range of information for publicly held companies.
    • International businesses have to abide by disclosure standards adopted by the International Accounting Standards Board.

     

  • The Keys To Success In Your Own Entrepreneurship


     

    Fundamentals

    Success in your own entrepreneurship – or small business – may depend on a lot of different things, and many an entrepreneur would achieve instant wealth if they had the formula that could be patented and sold to other entrepreneurs; but there is no such formula. Many so-called experts will tell you what does NOT work for achieving entrepreneurial success, instead of what does.

    It has been said that success in business has nothing whatsoever to do with salesmanship, and little to do with a knowledge of your company’s products or services. That also is incorrect, because the lack of salesmanship or product knowledge will surely be a one-way ticket to the dump heap of so many other once-promising enterprises whose owners didn’t bother to learn how to deal with their market or convey to that market why their product was worthwhile.

    While salesmanship and/or product knowledge will not be the only skills you need to succeed in business, when they are combined with other important and fundamental principles your success or failure at anything you do in life will certainly be determined. Those other principles are your A,B,C’s, Attitude, Belief and Consistency. Let’s take a closer look at these basics.

    Attitude

    Possibly the most important of the three principles mentioned above but useless on its own. It’s no good having the best attitude in the world if you sitting on one’s own in a closed room not talking to or exposed anyone else. So what is attitude apart from how one feels about oneself and others. Attitude can best be described as a shining through of your inner self.

    Your face is transparent, totally transparent and your attitude shines through whether it’s positive or negative. The instant that a prospective customer sees you maybe even before you see him, your attitude comes through. The customer sees it, maybe only subconsciously and will react accordingly.

    We all know that the first thing any salesperson has to sell is his/her self even s/he they begins to talk. If s/he can’t sell the public on who s/he is and what s/he represents then s/he might as well turn round and go home and go back to bed. If salespeople can’t sell themselves they wouldn’t be able to sell an iced cold drink to the most thirsty individual.

    NAVAN Global, the REAL SEAL!

    So when we get up in the morning and do our consistency things let’s get a really big warm smile from within feeling good about ourselves and keep that all day. When we go about our business we need to keep our good attitude with us. If we can’t also be in the place where we are physically there’s no point being there in the first place. It’s easier to ride a horse in the direction that it’s going.

    Belief

    An absolute and genuine belief in our business, it’s products and services and the benefits it can provide to ALL customers who use it. Belief is commitment. Total commitment to and in what you are representing to the marketplace. You have to be ready, willing and able to demonstrate to anyone in your presence how your product/service benefits YOU and your family; and why it is without question the best thing of its kind you have EVER seen in your life.

    Consistency

    We get up every morning, we brush our teeth wash, get dressed have breakfast. We are consistent in our actions. We do it every day. We need to do the same with the tasks associated with our business for the days that we have chosen we are going to work, be it 1 or 7 days a week. We need to take mental notes of each positive action we perform and be prepared to repeat it whenever necessary.

    However, we need to do the same thing for the negative actions we took so we can avoid these kinds of actions at all costs. Developing good habits comes with repetition which means that we need to be consistent in positive actions, and just as consistent in the elimination of negative actions that can take down our enterprises. We need to concentrate on the actions not on the result. I’ll repeat that, we need to concentrate on the actions not on the results.

    Methodical approach

    When we go mountain climbing, if we would continually look at the summit we would soon trip up and fall. We need to concentrate on each small step at a time, one after the other and as surely as the sun goes down we will reach our summit. So the combination of all the important ingredients that determine your success or failure must be taken and utilized together in order to be effective.

  • Today’s Entrepreneur is Yesterday’s Superstar Employee




    Think about this headline for a little bit and then ask yourself this simple question: How did I get the confidence to start my own entrepreneurship? Understanding, of course, that your entrepreneurship is an extension of yourself, it’s reasonable to conclude that you have already proven to yourself that the skills, knowledge and experience needed to operate a business are all a part of your make-up, but had been honed during a former employment position.

    You may have used this talent to catapult your employer’s company to super success status; but could not claim any more of the company’s success than what your position commanded, which was somewhat short of the value you added. Now that you are an entrepreneur with your own business that needs to be catapulted to success status, you’re betting on this same talent to take your business over the top; and that is certainly understandable.

    However, you need a plan for your business and it cannot be the same plan used by your former employer; although the time and energy you put into it will undoubtedly be the same, if not more. Yes, you need a new plan for your new business. A plan that is just as good as or better than the one under which you became a superstar while carrying out the duties for your former employer. A plan to grow. A success plan.

    Your strategy must be a proven one that has worked for small businesses as well as some of the larger companies; and it must be a strategy that is flexible enough to allow for the kind of adjustments that will become necessary as your business begin to grow and take on additional responsibilities, new staff and renewed objectives. Of this new staff, perhaps the most important part, is the sales staff whose function it is to promote and market your product/service, but also a positive image of your company.

    Understand that no matter how small your company is, you can hire a sales force that can catapult company growth like you never imagined. Therefore your plan must supportive of astronomical growth and the strategy employed to execute such a plan must be instructive as well as thorough; taking into account that while you have a natural ability to build your own business, the help you will need to achieve massive success must also have “natural” ability or be capable of being taught to perform at the highest levels of achievement.

    In other words, the kind of help you’re going to need is individuals who are considered to fit the profile of top producers in your type of business and you – based on your strategy – must be able to identify this type of individual based on a psychological profile, or the person’s past achievements. This type of person might be someone you can put in a bad situation with poor tools, no training, bad resources and still, within a few months, begin to out-perform any other individual within the same setting.

    Since it will be your responsibility to select the kind of superstars you want for your company – as you had been when you were employed – you may be interested to know, if you don’t already, the two things that drive the superstar. They are both critical traits and they work perfectly together when you can find them. The first is empathy and the second is self esteem.

    Empathy is described as the need to bond with others; to find something likable about every person. It is a wonderful trait to find in a salesperson and allows that individual to just keep going at the client every which way, trying to find more and more ways to serve that client, to please that client. Empathy is a key trait and part of your interview process – part of your overall strategy – must be specifically designed to find their empathy.

    Self Esteem is described as a strong sense of self; and you have to recognize that great sales results come from people with very high self-esteem. Only a person with an extra dose of self-esteem persists with a client time after time even after the client has said no. People with weak self esteem will walk away after only a single rejection, because they fear rejection and therefore never actually close a sale.

    Studies show that 48% of salespeople give up after only one rejection. Only 4% will try more than 4 times. Yet it takes 8.4 rejections to get a meeting, and even with eMail Marketing it takes 7 emails to a subscriber before the marketer makes a sale. What makes the difference between someone who will face that rejection one time and quit or 40 times and never quit, is purely personal self esteem.

    Another aspect of a strong self esteem is personal ambition. Don’t you love it when you hire someone who innovates, expands upon and improves every single task you assign to them? You were that person with your previous employer, so it stands to reason that you will have a pretty good understanding of this type of individual, and as such will be profoundly empathetic to his/her desire to join your company’s sales staff.

    Another characteristic of self esteem can be described as the need to please, which can make some people of this ilk seem overly eager-to-please in a job interview; but you shouldn’t let a little bravado put you off; it is the quintessential trait in every superstar. In an interview, the person is the product, so they must present themselves with confidence to assure you that s/he is the one you’re looking for. Such aggressive behavior will scare some employers, but it is exactly what you need in a salesperson, and something you know only too well.