TP Javeton WebNet

Tag: businesses

  • What does an audit do?


    If a business breaks the rules of accounting and ethics, it can be liable for legal sanctions against it. It can deliberately deceive its investors and lenders with false or misleading numbers in its financial report. That’s where audits come in. Audits are one way to keep misleading financial reporting to a minimum. CPA auditors are like highway patrol officers who enforce traffic laws and issue tickets to keep speeding to a minimum. An audit exam can uncover problems that the business was not aware of.

    After completing an audit examination, the CPA prepares a short report stating that the business has prepared its financial statements, according to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), or where it has not. All businesses that are publicly traded are required to have annual audits by independent CPAs. Those companies whose stocks are listed on the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq must be audited by outside CPA firms. For a publicly traded company, the expense of conducting an annual audit is the cost of doing business; it’s the price a company pays for going into public markets for its capital and for having its shares traded in the public venue.

    Although federal law doesn’t require audits for private businesses, banks and other lenders making loans to private businesses may insist on audited financial statements. If the lenders don’t require audited statements, a business’ owners have to decide whether an audit is a good investment.

    Instead of an audit, which they can’t really afford, many smaller businesses have an outside CPA come in on a regular basis to look over their accounting methods and give advice on their financial reporting. But unless a CPA has done an audit, he or she has to be very careful not to express an opinion of the external financial statements. Without a careful examination of the evidence supporting the amounts reported in the financial statements, the CPA is in no position to give an opinion on the financial statements prepared from the accounts of the business.

  • 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.

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    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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  • Home Based Web Business – A Network Marketing Affair


    If you have been in the eCommerce market for at least 6 months, you are already receiving offers from many companies promoting their products/services to you, and this will continue as businesses offer you the opportunity to become a distributor of those products and/or services. While many of these businesses offer the opportunity free of charge, others may require you to pay a fee similar to that of a franchise, based on their willingness to set up a website with your name on it and provide instructions on how to make it a success.

    Regardless of the motives behind their willingness to share knowledge, techniques and strategies, you’re still able to share in the wealth of their business operations. Where many people make the mistake, is in getting involved with a home-based Web business and then believing – mistakenly – that just by filling out the online forms and paying the required fees, they will immediately start on a money-making journey to riches, wealth and the realization of their dreams.

    This could not be farther from the reality of what actually happens after getting involved with a home-based web business. Failure to think long enough about how you came to be involved in this type of business, and the fact that someone was marketing this plan to you, can often lead to failure to grow your new business by marketing it to others; as many “others” as you possibly can during the early years of the new venture.

    So the time to relax is not in the beginning of your new business but after you put in the required time (10 to 18 hour days and 7 day weeks, for as long as it takes) to make your business a success. The major portion of your time, work and and money will be spent – or should be spent – promoting and advertising your new business.

    There are numerous ways to promote your home-based Web business, such as old-fashion advertising, handing out business cards or even putting you web address on the side of your vehicle to be seen while you drive to the grocery store or around town. All that may be good to draw a half dozen people or so to your new business venture, but to help it really grow and ultimately succeed, it may be necessary to rely more on the network marketing strategy.

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    Oil millionaire J. Paul Getty is often quoted as saying, he would rather have one percent of the efforts of 100 people, than 100 percent of his own efforts; and that is the basis of network marketing. The Kirby vacuum cleaner company devised its own form of network marketing as far back as 1935 before the phrase was coined and the concept totally understood.

    The KVC company knew that in order to sell their sweepers, a sit-down presentation was needed. They had a few dealers with whom they shared the profits of their sales and using their proven methods they taught others to sell the sweepers and each person who was brought in as a sales representative could also share in the profits off the efforts of others once s/he followed the proven success plan.

    While a few people may make a lot of money in a short period of time with network marketing, most must grow their business slowly, because of the learning curve, as well as the marketing tests (or test marketing as the case may be) that must take place if your home-based Web business is to be a success. Test marketing is a time-consuming activity which cannot be rushed.

    You owe it to your business and yourself (and family, if applicable) to devote the number of hours every day, week and month to learn all you need to know from and about the sponsoring company (if your business is network marketing or milti-level marketing in nature), and anything else you need to know about how to market the product or service you are selling.

    Once you educate yourself, you can train others to be successful by teaching them to market the product or service and make money from their sales as well. The more people they have working under them, the more money they can make; And since you devoted valuable time, money and resources to train them, you will also make more money which you would deserve.

  • Customers: The Entrepreneurial Blueprint For Marketing Success

    TPJaveton WebNet welcomes past readers and supporters of the Web Marketing Tips for Entrepreneurs Website!

    As you may already know, the content of Web Marketing Tips for Entrepreneurs was recently merged with TPJaveton WebNet in our efforts to consolidate the various Internet properties owned and operated by TPJaveton & Associates into one comprehensive site. If you experienced any inconvenience during your efforts to find the content you’re used to reading at WMTfE, we extend our sincerest apologies. However, we will try to bring you content that is qualitatively as good as what you’ve become accustomed to at WMTfE. Thanks for visiting again!

    Customer discovery

    The headline to this article that Customers Are The Entrepreneurial Blueprint For Marketing Success is a rather obvious statement. However, it is being emphasized here to express the point that what is obvious or may seem routine is oftentimes the very thing that is neglected in entrepreneurships and businesses all over the world, and invariably leads to the failure of those businesses. Thus the question…

    How well do you know your customers? a little introspection can get the ball rolling in you getting a pretty good idea of who your customers are and exactly what is the primary reason your they (customers and/or clients) come to your website, product page or – if your business is offline – your business establishment? What is the primary reason your customers purchase your product or service? What is the Number One problem you solve for them? Do you know? Are you certain? If you don’t know or are not certain, your marketing could be missing the mark, and you could be missing out on sales.

    Uncovering Your “Key Selling Point”

    This is the Single Marketing Message that is central in all of your communications about your business, product or service. You might say it is your Unique Sales Proposition. It can be difficult for small business owners to determine what their single marketing message or USP should be. Why? Because they are too close to their business; And, because they are viewing their business from their side of the desk, or counter as the case may be.

    That having been said, how are you keeping your marketing customer-focused and dealing with the challenges it is most certain to present? And even if you, the forward thinking business owner have figured out how to meet such a challenge, have you considered looking at your business from our customers’ perspective? We both know it’s often easier said than done. It very easy to many business owners to get caught up in all the amazing features of our product or service and the reasons WE THINK our clients are attracted to or buying from us.

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    But sometimes our vantage point is clouded by our own perceptions and beliefs. And those perceptions and beliefs may be inaccurate. So how do you pinpoint the real reason customers are attracted to your product or service and the true reasons they are choosing to buy?

    The easy way to stay on track

    Very simply, YOU ASK THEM! Okay, I know it seems obvious, but you’d be surprised how often we don’t think of the obvious, a sentiment expressed earlier in this post. Your prospects and customers (and yes, even your non-buyers) can provide great insights about the benefits they value most in your product or service and why they chose to buy, or not buy, in the case of the non-buyers.

    Let’s get straight to a very integral part of every entrepreneur’s duty – yes, I said duty – which will bring things more into focus: Research! You don’t have to have a large customer or prospect base to do some research and see if you are on track; because even if you only have a handful of clients or customers, you could contact them and ask them what they like most about your product or service.

    Talk to your Clients or Customers

    1. What is the one thing that got them to purchase?
    2. Have you delivered on that promise?
    3. What do they like least about your product or service?
    4. How could you improve your product or service?
    5. What else (in your business category) do they have a need for?
    6. How else could you help them be successful, be happier, or solve whatever problem your product or service solves for them?

    Talk to & survey your non-buyers (This have been done very successfully by a number of eCommerce companies) – find out why they DIDN’T buy.

    • Ask them what product or service they bought instead of yours? And why?
    • Ask them what that competing product or service offered that yours did not?
    • Ask if there is anything you could do to get their business in the future? Product or service changes, additions, deletions?

    Talk to your Prospects

    Do you have a list of prospects – those who have expressed an interest in your product or service but have not yet purchased? Perhaps they have subscribed to your newsletter or ezine.

    • Ask them for feedback on your newsletter or ezine content.
    • What topics are they interested in learning more about?
    • How can you help them to be more successful, happier, etc?
    • Find out what they want and who they are.

    And in all three cases — Clients/Customers, Rejecters, and Prospects — if it seems appropriate, ask for a little information about who they are. Age, gender, profession, where they live, how much they typically spend in your product or service category.

    This will help you get a better understanding of your target audience and you’ll know if you are attracting the kind of people you thought would be interested in your product or service. And if you need to change your marketing strategy to reach a different audience, or to perhaps change your target audience, doing so will help you better serve them.

     

    The more you can learn about your prospects and customers the better you can serve them. And the more effectively you can market to them. You may be in for a surprise, but customers and prospects will tell you why they are buying from you or not buying, if they are asked. What you hear surprise you.

    Very often what you hear can help you zero-in on a Unique Selling Proposition that you never thought of. And because it came from the mouths of your customers you know it is compelling and effective, but don’t change everything based on a few opinions.

    My only caution is if you only have a handful of customers or prospects to survey, don’t make any major changes or decisions until you are able to validate your findings among a larger group of people… Or at least test any changes you do make before making a final decision to overhaul your entire business or marketing plan. Common sense is the rule here. Just use your own good judgment and don’t over-react to comments made by only a handful of people.

    Don’t be afraid to ASK

    There are any number of ways to collect research from your prospects and customers. You can telephone them, email them, mail them a written questionnaire, or you can meet with them in a group (called a focus group) to collect their opinions. You can be as formal or informal as is comfortable for you, while also making them as comfortable as you possibly can. Typically the larger number of clients you survey, the more formal the survey. If you have only a handful of people to talk to, simply pick up the phone and call them.

    Don’t be afraid to ask for opinions on your products or services or how you can serve your clients better. What you find out could be extremely valuable in helping you to build and grow your business; And…

    Don’t forget to say the magical word(s): “Thanks” or “Thank you”, as the case may be.

    You will also want to consider offering an incentive to encourage your prospects and clients to participate or respond. A bonus, such as a special report, or a discount on a future purchase is a nice way to show your appreciation for them taking the time to respond to your survey.

    Read more about the entrepreneurial experience and business-related topics take a look at some of the following articles published right on this website:

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