"The vast majority of small business owners do not plan", I think that we can regard this statement as a ruling. But why is it so? As far as my knowledge reach, the reason for this derives from two different aspects: First, the lack of time that every small business owner face, which exists mainly because of the centrality of the small business owner in the day-to-day management tasks that are crucial for the maintenance of the small business. Second, the skills, or lack of skills, to establish a profound strategic planning process that will evolve into strategic plan that will lay out the small business goals and objectives and the necessary resources needed to achieve those objectives. Such skills are not as common even when we are dealing with large business top managers, but contrary to small business owners large business top managers do have the access to professionals in the field of strategic planning and the necessary resources to hire them, and this is what makes the whole difference.
Analyzing strategic planning conducted by small business owner raises some questions: do all small business owners sentenced to lag behind their corporate colleagues regarding strategic planning? Is there something that the small business owner can do in order to narrow the gap? And if there is, what will be the benefits to the small business owner?
Small business owners will never have the necessary resources needed to close the gap with large businesses regarding strategic planning process and implementation. But frankly I don't think that they should put neither their time nor their money in the elusive quest to narrow this gap. What small business owners can and should do is to understand that a small business is not a large business regarding its abilities and needs with the only exception that it's employ fewer employees. If this understanding become a common knowledge to the small business owner, it is rather obvious that he or she should adopt different approach regarding strategic planning. The idea that strategic planning at small business should not come in a rigid form, that dictate a step by step formula what the small business should do and how it's need to act at every possible situation, opens a whole new set of alternatives to engage at some sort of strategic planning from which the owner and its business will be the main beneficiaries. The benefits to the small business from engaging in any sort of strategic planning could be as follow: The understanding of the small business owner how he sees the objectives of its small business as for today and what he plans to the future. Defining the resources needed to achieve those objectives and plans. Insight what are and will be the risks while trying to implement its present and future plans.
Dr. Rami Schayek combining the academic world with a fieldwork as the CEO of several small businesses coincident with coaching many other small and medium businesses.
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April 25, 2008
Home Based Business Ideas To Look Into
The great thing about the internet is there are always new home based business ideas emerging. Add these with the continuous success of certain opportunities like affiliate marketing and you have a wide array of possibilities to look into. The sky is the limit for what you accomplish on the internet.
There is no limit as to how many opportunities you jump on. You can take on affiliate marketing and sell items on EBay at the same time. The only thing holding you back is yourself. As long as you have the drive and determination to succeed online, you will find success. So what are some of the home business ideas?
As mentioned, affiliate marketing has continued to bring people success. As with the internet as a whole, there is no limit as to how many affiliate programs you join either. However, it is recommended you take on no more than four or five at a time because of the time you will have to invest in each. But with the proper marketing, you can have a great amount of success with affiliate marketing.
The next opportunity is doing any type of freelance work available. This gives you the chance to make use of your skills you have. If you are a good writer, there are plenty of freelance writing positions available. If you can design web pages brilliantly, there are graphic designing jobs open. Freelance work can be one of the best full time jobs on the internet.
EBay has emerged over the past few years as a great way to make some extra money. While it is not necessarily the way to make a living off of, you can make some good money off of selling items. People make money in one of two ways; selling their own items and selling items for more than they purchase them for.
While there are several programs to choose from on the internet, a couple of the new programs bringing people high incomes is Success University and Abunza. Despite being around for a short period of time, people are making thousands of dollars a month with these two programs. They have incredible commission plans and a product that is worth investing in.
The most logical home based business idea is simply starting your own site. There is no limit to what you can do with a web site of your own. You can sell your own products, make money off of pay per click advertising, and even promote affiliate programs. If you do not yet have a web site of your own, it is definitely worth looking into.
Would you like to have a real web site business? Mana Aroontut invites you to visit their full service marketing business website for everything you need to start and run your own online business. Their services include advertising, mentoring, and a full service training and support package to help guarantee your success. Learn more here: www.MillionDollar-Affiliate.com/pips.html
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2008's Top Internet Marketing Tips
Internet Marketing tips for 2008, South Africa.
Calendar Printing and Creating Brand Recall, Image and Value
And how many people do you know who would appreciate the special concern of receiving a greeting car...
E-bay Auctions: Sell Better, Spend Less Tip #1
Just about everyone alive today has heard of E Bay.com, but most people just don't realize the sheer...
There is no limit as to how many opportunities you jump on. You can take on affiliate marketing and sell items on EBay at the same time. The only thing holding you back is yourself. As long as you have the drive and determination to succeed online, you will find success. So what are some of the home business ideas?
As mentioned, affiliate marketing has continued to bring people success. As with the internet as a whole, there is no limit as to how many affiliate programs you join either. However, it is recommended you take on no more than four or five at a time because of the time you will have to invest in each. But with the proper marketing, you can have a great amount of success with affiliate marketing.
The next opportunity is doing any type of freelance work available. This gives you the chance to make use of your skills you have. If you are a good writer, there are plenty of freelance writing positions available. If you can design web pages brilliantly, there are graphic designing jobs open. Freelance work can be one of the best full time jobs on the internet.
EBay has emerged over the past few years as a great way to make some extra money. While it is not necessarily the way to make a living off of, you can make some good money off of selling items. People make money in one of two ways; selling their own items and selling items for more than they purchase them for.
While there are several programs to choose from on the internet, a couple of the new programs bringing people high incomes is Success University and Abunza. Despite being around for a short period of time, people are making thousands of dollars a month with these two programs. They have incredible commission plans and a product that is worth investing in.
The most logical home based business idea is simply starting your own site. There is no limit to what you can do with a web site of your own. You can sell your own products, make money off of pay per click advertising, and even promote affiliate programs. If you do not yet have a web site of your own, it is definitely worth looking into.
Would you like to have a real web site business? Mana Aroontut invites you to visit their full service marketing business website for everything you need to start and run your own online business. Their services include advertising, mentoring, and a full service training and support package to help guarantee your success. Learn more here: www.MillionDollar-Affiliate.com/pips.html
Get notified of new articles:
Link exchange
Exchange links with our website
2008's Top Internet Marketing Tips
Internet Marketing tips for 2008, South Africa.
Calendar Printing and Creating Brand Recall, Image and Value
And how many people do you know who would appreciate the special concern of receiving a greeting car...
E-bay Auctions: Sell Better, Spend Less Tip #1
Just about everyone alive today has heard of E Bay.com, but most people just don't realize the sheer...
April 24, 2008
Simple Bookkeeping Spreadsheets
Accounting software is used by accountants to enter many complex financial transactions into the financial books of account and is almost invariably based upon double entry bookkeeping principles. A major advantage to those companies and the finance staff is the extent to which financial information contained in the database can be queried for financial control purposes.
An accountant needs to not only ensure the financial records are accurate but also retrieve any part of the accounting records to answer accounting questions on the accounts, provide a legal basis for the transactions and report the financial statements at regular periodic intervals.
The small business has different accounting needs which are better described as bookkeeping than accounting. For non limited companies that do not need to produce a balance sheet then a simple income and expenditure account can be produced much simpler using single entry bookkeeping principles.
Less financial control is often required from small business accounting software as the bookkeeper is often the owner manager who already has an intimate knowledge of each transaction. Books are still required for tax purposes and a solid requirement of preparing a set of financial books for tax purposes is that each entry is supported by third party evidence.
Examples of third party evidence would be sales invoices, purchases invoices and bank statements. Financial transactions where no receipt exists can still be entered in the business books although all transactions not carrying third party evidence could subsequently be disallowed for tax purposes and certainly would be if the amounts entered indicated unusual income or expenditure.
Producing an income and expenditure statement using single entry bookkeeping is little more than making two lists of financial transactions. Those lists being one of sales income received from sales invoices or receipts issued to customers and the other of purchase expenditure being from purchase invoices received from suppliers.
To record sales income it would not normally be sufficient to simply add up the total of the invoices as such a summation does not leave an audit trail of the items which have been included. A written list of sales invoices does provide an audit trail.
Sales accounting for a small business accounting purposes can be either a manual list of the sales invoices or by using a spreadsheet package a list can be made on a bookkeeping spreadsheet. Using a spreadsheet for the bookkeeping has advantages as simple formula can be used to add up the column totals.
The essential information to enter for a sales invoice would be the date of the sale, name of the customer, sales invoice number if applicable and optional a brief description of the item sold. In the next column would be the total sales invoice amount. If items like value added tax are required to be accounted for then an additional column would be required to accommodate the vat or sales tax accounting.
A further small complication might be if at the discretion of the small business owner additional information was required from the bookkeeping records to indicate the totals of the different types of products and services then additional columns could be incorporated to enter the net sales figures in these columns.
There it is then, a simple list of sales invoices to satisfy the sales accounting requirements for a small business where a balance sheet is not required.
On the expenditure side of the business the bookkeeping can also be a simple list of the purchase invoices and receipts showing the amount spent. The list should also produce an audit trail by showing the date of the purchase invoice, name of the supplier, purchase invoice for identification purposes and the total amount spent.
Usually tax returns are the main purpose of producing small business accounts and invariably some analysis is required to show what the expenses have been spent on. That is not difficult to achieve and as with the sales accounting the owner manager can add additional standard columns to the bookkeeping spreadsheet.
The expenditure analysis columns do not need to be a different column for each type of expenditure. It is better to set up and group the analysis columns in general headings which can accommodate all the expenses.
Such columns may include stock, other direct costs, premises costs, general administrative costs, transport and delivery costs, repairs and maintenance, travelling and hotel costs, motor costs, bank and legal costs and other expenses. It is better not to enter too many items under a general heading of other expenses as this is more likely to be investigated as the type of expense has not been precisely identified.
One important column to also include is for asset purchases as fixed assets usually have different tax rules applying to the claim of the expense against tax and should be separated from other expenditure.
Having set up two bookkeeping spreadsheets the task is then to produce the income and expenditure account by collecting the totals of each of the analysis columns. The sales total is the sales turnover from which is deducted the totals of each of the expenditure classification totals with the result being the net profit and loss of the business.
Where stock is bought and sold a further adjustment may be required to account for the difference between opening and closing stock. This is done by taking a physical stock check and valuing the stock at the start and end of the financial period.
On the income and expenditure account adjust the stock purchases figure by adding the value of the opening stock and deducting the value of the closing stock. The result is not the stock purchases total as shown in the bookkeeping spreadsheets but the cost of the goods which have been sold to produce the sales turnover being reported.
Simple bookkeeping for a small business accounting purposes can be two lists of sales and purchases supported with sales invoices and purchases invoices.
Terry Cartwright a qualified accountant at DIY Accounting in the UK designs Accounting Software on excel spreadsheets providing complete Small Business Accounting Software solutions with single and double entry Bookkeeping Software for both limited companies and self employed business
An accountant needs to not only ensure the financial records are accurate but also retrieve any part of the accounting records to answer accounting questions on the accounts, provide a legal basis for the transactions and report the financial statements at regular periodic intervals.
The small business has different accounting needs which are better described as bookkeeping than accounting. For non limited companies that do not need to produce a balance sheet then a simple income and expenditure account can be produced much simpler using single entry bookkeeping principles.
Less financial control is often required from small business accounting software as the bookkeeper is often the owner manager who already has an intimate knowledge of each transaction. Books are still required for tax purposes and a solid requirement of preparing a set of financial books for tax purposes is that each entry is supported by third party evidence.
Examples of third party evidence would be sales invoices, purchases invoices and bank statements. Financial transactions where no receipt exists can still be entered in the business books although all transactions not carrying third party evidence could subsequently be disallowed for tax purposes and certainly would be if the amounts entered indicated unusual income or expenditure.
Producing an income and expenditure statement using single entry bookkeeping is little more than making two lists of financial transactions. Those lists being one of sales income received from sales invoices or receipts issued to customers and the other of purchase expenditure being from purchase invoices received from suppliers.
To record sales income it would not normally be sufficient to simply add up the total of the invoices as such a summation does not leave an audit trail of the items which have been included. A written list of sales invoices does provide an audit trail.
Sales accounting for a small business accounting purposes can be either a manual list of the sales invoices or by using a spreadsheet package a list can be made on a bookkeeping spreadsheet. Using a spreadsheet for the bookkeeping has advantages as simple formula can be used to add up the column totals.
The essential information to enter for a sales invoice would be the date of the sale, name of the customer, sales invoice number if applicable and optional a brief description of the item sold. In the next column would be the total sales invoice amount. If items like value added tax are required to be accounted for then an additional column would be required to accommodate the vat or sales tax accounting.
A further small complication might be if at the discretion of the small business owner additional information was required from the bookkeeping records to indicate the totals of the different types of products and services then additional columns could be incorporated to enter the net sales figures in these columns.
There it is then, a simple list of sales invoices to satisfy the sales accounting requirements for a small business where a balance sheet is not required.
On the expenditure side of the business the bookkeeping can also be a simple list of the purchase invoices and receipts showing the amount spent. The list should also produce an audit trail by showing the date of the purchase invoice, name of the supplier, purchase invoice for identification purposes and the total amount spent.
Usually tax returns are the main purpose of producing small business accounts and invariably some analysis is required to show what the expenses have been spent on. That is not difficult to achieve and as with the sales accounting the owner manager can add additional standard columns to the bookkeeping spreadsheet.
The expenditure analysis columns do not need to be a different column for each type of expenditure. It is better to set up and group the analysis columns in general headings which can accommodate all the expenses.
Such columns may include stock, other direct costs, premises costs, general administrative costs, transport and delivery costs, repairs and maintenance, travelling and hotel costs, motor costs, bank and legal costs and other expenses. It is better not to enter too many items under a general heading of other expenses as this is more likely to be investigated as the type of expense has not been precisely identified.
One important column to also include is for asset purchases as fixed assets usually have different tax rules applying to the claim of the expense against tax and should be separated from other expenditure.
Having set up two bookkeeping spreadsheets the task is then to produce the income and expenditure account by collecting the totals of each of the analysis columns. The sales total is the sales turnover from which is deducted the totals of each of the expenditure classification totals with the result being the net profit and loss of the business.
Where stock is bought and sold a further adjustment may be required to account for the difference between opening and closing stock. This is done by taking a physical stock check and valuing the stock at the start and end of the financial period.
On the income and expenditure account adjust the stock purchases figure by adding the value of the opening stock and deducting the value of the closing stock. The result is not the stock purchases total as shown in the bookkeeping spreadsheets but the cost of the goods which have been sold to produce the sales turnover being reported.
Simple bookkeeping for a small business accounting purposes can be two lists of sales and purchases supported with sales invoices and purchases invoices.
Terry Cartwright a qualified accountant at DIY Accounting in the UK designs Accounting Software on excel spreadsheets providing complete Small Business Accounting Software solutions with single and double entry Bookkeeping Software for both limited companies and self employed business
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