How to Stay Focused & Build Your Business

HOW TO STAY FOCUSED AND BUILD YOUR BUSINESS

by: E.SAUNDERS

You have a detailed business plan, which showed the overall intent of your
company. You presented the business plan to your bank before start-up and they
submitted funding in the amount that you both deemed acceptable. The original
business plan contained the basis of the procedures that will help you stay
focussed while the company grows. Let's examine some of these processes that you
will use to give your business the focus it needs to grow and succeed.

1. A marketing plan.

If sales are a part of your
operation (and it seems that some form of selling is always a big part of every
company), then, you will need to have your sales group focussed on a marketing
plan. Short term and longer-term analysis should be a part of this planning and
will likely contain an analysis of your competition, market potential and sales
projections. Be careful not to fall into the trap of letting “the business take
care of itself”, stay focussed at all times and be sure your managers are tuned
into this market monitoring regularly, nothing is more defeating to the general
manager/owner than to be told by a sales manager…I didn't see that coming!
YIKES!

2. Accounting procedures.

If sales are important,
then the need to stay focussed on receiving the proceeds from sales is equally
important. Accounts payable, expenses and accounts receivable need to have fixed
procedures in place to allow money to flow freely through the company coffers.
Focussing on these procedures at regular weekly and monthly meetings will put
the accounting and marketing groups on the same path. A rift between marketing
and accounting is a common bureaucratic occurrence; so don't be surprised if one
point you hear from someone from sales state, “We make the money here, how come
I have to live by their rules?” Getting these two operations to stay focussed on
a bottom line results oriented approach is a regular part of an owner's job
description.

3. Human resources.

If you have ever worked for a
manager, who considered his employees as expenses rather than assets, then you
will be familiar with the need for managers to stay focussed on human resources
within the company. A manager who is fixated on staff reduction regardless of
their accomplishments will create an atmosphere of fear. Certainly, no one wants
to be grossly over-staffed, but a good owner/manager will focus on keeping
adequate employee base numbers, and ensure continuing training, safety programs
and top of the line employee benefits. It's your campground, why not have “happy
campers?”

4. Selling your business.

This does not mean
selling in the true literal sense. It means focusing on being sure your company
image is one that is the envy of your competitors and is known in the business
world as a first class operation. You can do this by having key managers
attending industry conferences. Be clear and tell them that their focus at these
seminars is to network, thoroughly gathering as much new information that they
can. They should also 'sell' other attendees on the importance and efficiency of
their company in the industry. Upon their return, have follow-up meetings with
these managers where they will report in detail on what they have learned.
Managers attending conventions and seminars should take opportunities to enjoy
themselves, nevertheless, they will be the “face” of your company, it's wise be
sure that they focus on making them business meetings, and not all “playtime.”

If planning, organizing, staffing, direction and control are five major
factors in managing a company, staying focussed throughout the process, is
paramount

Asset And Liability Basics

Asset And Liability Basics

by: E.SAUNDERS

Knowledge of accounts can make life much easy. If you are to invest in a new
business or joining your forefather’s business, planning to take some loan,
looking for job in any marketing company, desire to be the manager of a
multinational company or have the onus to manage your own assets and
liabilities, knowing some basics of accounts becomes mandatory.

Broadly, accounting is bifurcated into two categories-

Cash Based Accounting

Accrual Accounting

The Cash Based accounting pertains to the management of an individual’s personal
monetary transactions. In this case, he keeps a track of the money he withdrew,
deposited, gave or received from someone etc. This accounting comes to life when
actual cash transactions take place.

The Accrual Accounting requires an accountant who notes the transactions even if
no money has been actually exchanged. This method works on the principle of
comparing or seeing the ratio of the expenses to expenditure. If the expenditure
is more, you need to cut down your luxuries, if not then it’s always good to
have some savings for future. This type of accounting tells you the amount that
you owed; this might not match with the figure of your bank balance.

In the language of accounting there are several key terms that one needs to be
familiar with. Some of the crucial ones are discussed below-

The Assets-

The assets are generally those possessions of an individual that
have a good market value or are quite valuable. Assets are mainly classified
into three types-

Current Asset-

The cash is the most basic asset of any individual. The money
that is being held in accounts like the checking and savings accounts is also
included in the cash. Also inclusive are the marketable securities in the form
of bonds, stocks, shares etc. The money lent or payments due from clients, even
form a part of it.

Fixed Asset-

Comprises of all the tangible valuable things like property,
machines, equipments, land and the like that are not meant to be sold.

Intangible Asset-

Incorporates all the untouchable things like copyrights,
patents, trademarks etc. that have tremendous monetary significance.

The law of opposites governs the nature; where there are assets, there will be
liabilities. These are the debts that you have to pay back to your creditors.
This can be done through giving cash or any other asset like jewelry, some other
goods etc. Liabilities again are of two kinds-

1. The Current Liabilities- the liabilities that are to be paid back within a
certain time limit and most often through your current assets. These include the
accounts payable i.e. type of bill that you have to monthly, the Notes
Payable-loans taken from banks meant to be repaid within 30 days and the Accrued
Expenses- the compulsory expenses like taxes, wages, interests etc. where the
bills are not received but the balances of each must be repaid.

2. Long Term Liabilities- those debts that can be repaid at ease for the tenure
is more then a month.

The Financial Capital- is the economic capital. It is any liquid medium or
merchandise that stands for wealth or other styles or capital. There are four
ways to manage and display the financial capital. First, this capital is needed
when a contract is made with any sort of capital asset. The financial
instruments work in the form of currency in case of sale, purchase or trade of
goods i.e. the medium exchanges. Second, it works as a settled medium or mode
like gold for the

Standard of Deferred Payment. Third, The Unit of Account has a market value
attached to it which in turn varies with the economy of the country. Fourth, The
Source of Value is concerned with financial capital that needs to be saved and
recovered. It is a collection of things like gold, real estate, collectibles
etc.

Petty Cash is an important factor in business. It is the smallest account within
a business setting or the cash in bills and coinage required to pay little
expenses.

Types of Business- there are several kinds of business one should be aware of
like

Sole proprietorship- where a single individual who starts the business owns it
too.

Partnerships- the companies or businesses started by two or more persons where
they conjointly own it.

Corporations- involve lot many shareholders or investors who are responsible in
taking decisions for the company.

Limited Liability Companies- can be said to be sisters of corporations. Here the
business members are not under a legal obligation to pay the debts if the
business fails.

Payrolls- the term payroll designates the manner in which you will be paying the
employees of your company and even yourself. Many multinational companies cater
to payroll service provider companies that do the work quite efficiently.

These are some of the broad guidelines that will help you grasp the basics of
accounting. It is essential to have some such wisdom for accounts as it is
fruitful in all walks of life