Common Business Cash-Flow Mistakes: Tips to Avoid Them

Every business has cash-flow bottlenecks, but if your small business is so tight on cash that you find it difficult to pay salaries or meet day-to-day expenses, then it is time to look for the causes and find solutions.

Here’s how to avoid some common cash-flow mistakes – and ensure that your small business stays in the red.

Not Evaluating Your Clients’ Credit History

You should check out your client’s credit history; if you don’t, it’s very likely that those with bad credit will delay their payments. If this happens, you should cut back on how much products you are supplying them with and at the same time bill them for the maximum.

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Quick Tip For Entrepreneurs ~ April 14

Looking to pitch your business...watch this!

Charlene Li, founder of digital strategies consulting firm Altimeter in this interview on Vator.tv with Bambi Francisco , shares her advice to entrepreneurs relating to pitching a business concept to her as well as insights in to the use of Social Media for business.

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Business Survival Tips for a Tight Economy

Times are challenging right now for many small businesses. Increased gas prices and other rising costs have caused many owners to tighten their belts to make ends meet. While there are many obvious things to do to lower expenses, the following are some more in-depth strategies you can use to keep your bottom line looking healthy.

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Seven SBA Loan Myths

Most small business owners have considered financing at some point in the life of their business. You may have considered expansion, buying new equipment, more inventories, purchasing real estate, or just looking for a new capital infusion. But the confusion surrounding SBA loans may perplex or frustrate even the most astute entrepreneur. Conflicting information from your trusted advisors or the internet may not help to bring you closer to separating fact from fiction.

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Factoring - A Short-Term Business-Financing Alternative

Occasionally a small business owner is caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place in regards to cash flow. Employees, vendors, suppliers and utilities must be paid, yet your customer’s have decided to delay paying your invoice until 30 - 60 - 90 days from now. Adding insult to injury, the bank cancels your line of credit and asks for repayment. As a small business owner, you may not have an accounts receivable department dedicated to collections. Usually, you or your bookkeeper review the A/R aging report and make calls when time permits. Do you have any options other than a cash infusion from your personal funds, another loan, contacting family and friends or even calling Lonnie, ‘The Nose’, to ask the local mob for a loan, perhaps at 10% a week?

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Tips for Setting Up an Online Store & Ways to Start an Online Store

Having a virtual storefront is a very inexpensive way of displaying and selling your products - and you can tap into a whole new market by employing this method.

Here are 5 tips to help you in setting up your online store:

1. Create an Attractive Website

The first thing to do is to create an attractive website and register it. You can register your business name as your website if it is available.

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Ten Things to Consider When Reviewing Your Business Plan

Once you have completed your business plan, it's time to review your work. Remember, writing your business plan is a significant step in making your small business concept a reality. Therefore, you should review your plan carefully and ask others who you feel can provide sound advice to also critique your document.

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Small Business Billing Tips

Small businesses need a constant amount of cash flow to pay off day-to-day expenses. Therefore, you need stringent billing practices in place to ensure that more money keeps flowing in than out.

Use the following billing practices to keep your small business healthy:

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Restructure Your Business in 4 Easy Steps

If your small business is in trouble, you cannot simply spend your way out of it. You'll need to restructure.

To restructure your business, you'll need clear direction, the resources to manage the change, and the willpower to implement it.

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Marketing for Small Business: Tips to Get Started

Whether you have ten employees or just one, you may still need marketing advice. So many small business owners are under the impression that marketing and advertising are meant more for the larger companies that want to attract a global market, or who want to attract thousands of new customers each hour.

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Ingredients For a Successful Small Business: Success Tips!

Decide What You Want to Sell

The product or service you intend to sell is the most important element of your venture. Although you may be tempted to sell products of your choice, you should select the product or service according to the demand for that particular product or service in your area. Another prerequisite is that you should have sound knowledge of what you are selling. Without the basic know-how of any product, you will not be able to sell it effectively.

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Does You Have a Business Success Plan?

Here are a few tips that will help your business design a great success plan.

To design a great business success plan, it is very important for you to be realistic. To plan for success your goals should be high, but achievable. Work within your budget and don’t use resources that you do not have. Set goals and work hard every day to achieve them.

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More New ‘10-Second Solutions’

Here’s our latest collection of What Works for Business 10-Second Solutions:

Scanners Get Smarter: Fujitsu just launched two new SnapScan scanners for PC and Mac users with great new small biz features.

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Start A Home-Based Biz? Answer 4 Questions

Gary E. Smith, an instructor at the Lane Community College Small Business Development Center said a desire to run your own company isn’t enough. He stated four things people should think about before they start their own company.

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What Makes A Business Sucessful? How Do You Measure Up?

Network Solutions has released a substantive report, the 2009 State of Small Business Report. This report includes a Small Business Success Index (SBSI) which is a survey of 1,000 business.

Get the full report and compare yourself to other small businesses here: http://growsmartbusiness.com/

The report analyzes the five areas a business needs to succeed in to be a success.

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Growing Your Business Your Way

There's something to be said for doing things your way. Learn how the masterminds behind Starbucks and Subway followed different paths to megasuccess.

They have built two of the best-known and most successful businesses in the food and beverage industry. Their brands have become household names in America, rivaling longer-established companies. They've delivered large profit margins in an industry where margins are historically tight and competition is extremely fierce. They've brought their companies overseas, and now there are new words for their products in Japanese, Hindi and even more exotic languages.

But Fred DeLuca, founder of sandwich supremo Subway, and Howard Schultz, founder of coffee conglomerate Starbucks, each did it his way. Indeed, their roads to profit diverged on one key point: Schultz has kept his chain company-owned, while DeLuca has built his corporation through franchising. (In fact, Subway retains only one company-owned store.) In both cases, the decision to franchise or to remain company-owned was perhaps the critical element in building the business. And in both cases, the decision paid off. Earlier this year, Subway, which DeLuca founded in 1965 with a $1,000 loan, opened store No. 18,000. The sub chain now has more outlets in the United States than McDonald's, yet it has continued to post growth rates higher than most other food and beverage chains. It has also opened outlets in more than 70 countries. For its part, since its founding in 1971, Starbucks has grown into a company with over 7,000 outlets worldwide and sales topping $2 billion per year. In an exclusive interview with Entrepreneur, DeLuca and Schultz explain why they chose the roads they did, examine the advantages and disadvantages of their strategies, and consider whether other entrepreneurs should emulate their paths.

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Keeping Borrowers Afloat

The biggest mistakes small businesses make when it comes to debt

By SIMONA COVEL

Around the country, small businesses are struggling to keep their head above water in a sea of debt. A recent survey from the National Federation of Independent Business showed the worst earnings trends for small businesses in the survey's 35-year history. With banks too jittery to lend, credit-card companies reducing limits and investors hard to find, many small businesses find themselves struggling to stay on top of their collections and pay their own bills.

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