Swedish citizens are proudly one of the most technologically advanced nations in the world. This online population uses the web for most aspects of life and in fact only 3% of all financial transactions are made using cash. Swedes can use their mobile phones to pay for everything from groceries to major expenses. Most public buses don’t accept cash but require prepaid tickets, and many businesses and some banks have stopped dealing with cash altogether. There is even a church where you can use a card reader to make a donation. In this modern and digital world, countries like Sweden are swiftly moving towards a cashless culture. This has had a surprising benefit that less cash around means fewer bank robberies. Increasingly people are unhappy handling dirty money and it’s becoming expensive to make. This trend is fueling the debate about the need for physical currency. What are your thoughts? how long before cash basically disappears?
A lot of stuff has been going pear shaped lately for me , i thought this would get some of you having issues back on track like it did me. Only failing if your not trying.
A Business Blog is a new approach to blending web design/blogging/SEO/SEM and Social Media marketing to create a powerful marketing tool.
Blog & Web site Working Together We create an online presence for your business that combines the immediacy and inbound marketing potential of a blog with a standard web site. To get the best bang for your online marketing efforts both should be considered and it is best if your blog is published at least once a week. The more frequently you blog, the more the Search Engines will crawl your site. So how do they work together? Blogging - Your blog sits at the “front” of your website. This is your new “HOME” page. Instead of having a static page which can stay the same for weeks, months or years, you will have a page with fresh content on a regular basis. All the fresh keyword rich content you create gets published and picked up by search engines here. This gives you a platform which you can add keyword rich content to that you then promote around the web. Blogging gives you more pages on a site that can be indexed by Search Engines and allows you to rank for less popularly searched keywords but that can still drive a lot of traffic overall (what is commonly known as the “long-tail”). Website - A “traditional website” where there are multiple tabs for the standard pages - About Us, Contact, Products, Services, Our Team, Portfolio, etc. New targeted traffic is being uncovered all the time by the blog. Sales are a numbers game, so the more traffic the more conversions to leads or sales. Blog about one of your products or services, the search engines will pick up the post, as it is fresh content you may end up near the top of the search engine result page for the content. A business blog combined with a traditional marketing website is a powerful marketing tool which can increase your sales and in these tough days that’s a great deal. Its true though. Think about it for a time and let me know your thoughts and how your business gets a "leg up" on the competition.
If you have decided to join one of the small business association, you should know that they mainly deal with small companies per general and do not focus on specific industry. With the existence of these associations you can find them very helpful especially when things go rather tough and you see no way to get rid of them. There is however a problem: should you join in a trade association or a small business one?
What you should know after all, is that both of them prove their efficiency whether it’s a trade or a business. The difference lies merely in that trade is based on the industry specifics, while the other one is based on the business as a whole. * One reason that should determine you to join the association is that through this one you will be provided with programs specially created to help your business in growing better and more professionally. As to joining the trade association, you will get programs designed to focus on the specifics of the industry while they are structured to enable the growth of the small business improving as well its internal process. * Another reason to join the small business association and the trade one, is they would come up with various kinds of expos. Through this expo everything is displayed, from things related to running a business (cash register vendors, software vendors) up to any other thing ever imagined for running a small enterprise. As to the trade expo, this one is more focused on the profession allowing the members to take part in the show and exhibit as well their own products. Through the trade expos you have the benefit of expanding your knowledge in the industry that your business is involved in, not to mention that you can get a better insight on what the competitors are focused. You will get to learn what is new on the market displaying industry products similar to your own industry. * You will be automatically subscribed to a newsletter service per month. The newsletter would have the content specific to the association you have joined. On many occasions you will get the newsletter with plenty of news related to your area of activity (including how to improve your bookkeeping) as well as details on the association activity. * Becoming one these members you will have the opportunity of building a network where other people are included, people who share the same interest with yours. You will get valuable help for your small business growth, so it is worth joining one of these association, as it can bring your enterprise an improved image both morally and financially. Start a business or don't start a business? Kinda reminds me of The Clash song below. When i first started in business i must have asked my self this question at least a million times. As well as a million more questions to go along with it. The more and more companies i have ran and opened you would think the pressure would lessen , you would be wrong. The question is the wrong question to be asking. The two questions you should ask your self are: 1.) Whats the worst that could happen ? 2.) Can i deal with it ? If you can answer yes to question number 2, then heck why not go for it? Obviously there are more questions that you should ask. In fact if you don't ask 1000 questions then you probably shouldn't be looking at opening a business, but these are the so called meat and potatoes. So what are questions you should be asking?
Well what kind of business are you thinking of starting? There are literally 100's of options. If your low on capital i recommend a service based business. You can doing something simple like a laundry service. perhaps you like to work outside ? I found some really interesting outdoor business ideas at http://thebusinesshq.com/31-awesome-outdoor-business-ideas/ really nice read if your struggling for a business idea or your kinda wacky. Where will you operate ? Many service businesses can be operated from the home or your car. Therefore "outdoor business ideas" are very popular, due to there lower start up costs then traditional brick and mortar establishments. If you do decide to open a traditional brick and mortar business make sure you take your time and really look around for the perfect spot. Once your in to a lease it can be difficult to get out. TIP: REMEMBER :- LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION How will you operate? Will you be a sole trader? or have partners ? Is it safer and economical enough to form a LLC? Most small businesses will start as a sole trader or with partners. However if your investing a lot of money into your business the couple thousand it requires to form a LLC is well worth the investment and extra protection it affords. I also recommend that as soon as viable all small businesses start ups form a llc for there own protection. If your forming a partnership it is a good idea before operations start to discuss and get on paper the responsibilities each partner may have. Also how the profits and or losses will be distributed. I recommend a lawyer help you thru this process. That being said if your on a limited budget , you can always type something up and have all partners sign and date it in front of a notary public. Doing either of these processes will provide a certain amount of clarity for everybody concerned. Will you continue to work ? Don't get too excited , we cant open a business hire a couple college kids and retire. What i meant was will you continue to work your "real" job ? Doing this will give you a little more security financially in the beginning stages. Obviously the more energy you put into your business when it is in its infancy the better. If your not 100% sure you want to quit your job. You could take off any vacation time you have available, ask for a couple months sabbatical or perhaps ask for modified hours or go part time temporarily. Well this was just meant to be a quick post , when i heard that song on the radio, 30 minutes later and im still typing. When i het some more time ill add some more questions you should ask your self before starting a business. I think it probabaly deserves a stand alone more well thought out post, rather then just my ramblings one Thursday afternoon when i should be doing something else. Let me know your thoughts , on any questions you might ask yourself when starting up your own business for the first time. Not many small business owners consider the necessity of creating their own website in order to have their enterprise displayed among the most powerful networks existing out there for advertising. The reasons for this are various but most of them think of this initiative the following:
* They consider that is very expensive and is not worthwhile the effort and the costs involved. * To create a website is not a task that should be left on novices’ hands. * They do not find this initiative too beneficial for their business. If we contradict each of the above one at a time you would understand that you will have all the reasons in the world to start creating a website for your small business. * First of all you should know that it is possible to get your website hosted for less than $11.00 for a period of 1 year, this price including as well your domain name hosting. * It is always good for business, regardless of its size, to get the assistance of an expert in building a website for your small enterprise. If you own enough financial resources pit aside for development and research, then you should go for hiring this expert especially if you are looking to have a dynamic and more complex website. Just see this problem from this perspective: a professionally created site for your small business would be a good source of information for internet surfers who are interested in companies similar with the one your own. Through a website you will have the chance for more customers to get in touch with you. It is way better than not having any of these benefits. * As to the last issue – not finding this initiative beneficial for your small business has been already contradicted in the above discussed topic, but along with these ones other benefits come as well. Owning your website will allow you to custom make the site in accordance to your area of activity bringing in as well more traffic to your website. You should see this one as a way to extend your business selling the products online and also finding other ways to extend your small business. More than this, you have the website and let it bring more profit to you on its own. To build a website nowadays has become quite an easy task that doesn’t require too complex computer skills. In order to get more knowledge on how to create your small business site you can as well learn how to do it through the tutorials that are available online, not to mention that plenty of this information can be obtained for free. If you want to resort to courses that are paid you should be cautious and not trust anyone promising something that sounds too good to be true. Found this clip on Youtube and got really motivated me so i thought i would share. Enjoy and go get um. Small businesses are very often set across USA with many business owners running a company of a small number of employees and not very big profits. When running this type of business as with any other business in fact, you will need the assistance of a professional accountant to help you with the finances. Many of these entrepreneurs consider doing the accounting on their own, but they are often penalized by the government for running late with the financial reports required by law. It might happen as well for the company to be fined because the tax dues are made as a result of errors recorded in the financial reports. In order to get your accounting done professionally you should either hire an in-house professional or you can outsource the accounting work to a CPA (Certified Public Accountants) company. The last option can prove sometimes more beneficial than with hiring an employee as with the latter you would have to pay more, not to mention that the outsourced accountant won’t need any extra space to perform his or her job. One thing that will ensure you that you make the right pick is the license. All the accountants hired by CPA are licensed, so you need to require the same for your accountant when you will set up your small business. Apart from this, make sure that he or she is experienced in the same field that your business has. Along with this, you should know how much you are going to pay for these services, since the fees vary from one CPA firm to another. On the interview you must see whether the accountant is the right person to fill the needs of the business you are running. Have at least 3 of the applicants interviewed in order to make the right decision.
The accounting needs of the business should relate also to the ability of the accountant of dealing with services performed for sales tax as well as payroll tax report. You should know that the accountant who best fits for your small business must belong also to CPA Company which is also small. These professionals have a better understand ding of how the small company is run and managed financially. It is one thing to own a degree in a field of activity and another thing is to know how to put this degree into practice. Another thing that you should do when interviewing the accountant is to ask for references with previous customers. In this way you can inquire about the work this professional has been doing when hired by other companies. It is also very important for the business owner to establish a relationship with his accountant making sure that this one every now and then comes to visit the small company, and not only to meet each other when the tax filing session is on. |