Small Business Dashboard Options

January 20th, 2010

Most of the new Small business’s fail not because of their execution or anything else but because the owner never realized where the problem is. To keep track of your business, you need to actively monitor who is your top customer, what is your open account receivables, what is your inventory etc

A small business is often bootstrapped so obviously there are no administrators who will run the reports so it is the owner’s job to keep a daily health check of his business.

MyBizHomepage, a Middleburg, Virginia-based startup, automatically uploads your QuickBooks data (2007 and 2008 versions only) to your own customizable web page, where you can keep an eye on your enterprise’s critical operational factors in real time. Many are standard-but-important business measures-the state of payables, receivables, cash flow and inventory.

In the above option you need to send your quickbook data to a third party which may be of little concern for few business owners.

InfoCaptor, is another Dashboard alternative where you can download the software on your PC and view the dashboards. It provides Expense trending, Sales trending and various gauges for financial ratios to alert you if your business is going off-track.

Sure, all of this information is available right in Quickbooks but the problem is you need to run seperate reports to get all these information. So lets say it typically takes 5 mins to run a typical report and if the business owner where to run say 10 different reports on a daily basis that itself accounts to a precious 50 mins of his/her time.

Business – Strategy and Execution

January 2nd, 2009

Every company aims to formulate good strategy and execute that strategy well. But many times it is found that it was either good strategy, bad execution or bad strategy and good execution. Why and how to avoid this?

Let us begin with what is a strategy? In simple terms, it means the plan to achieve the desired goals or results. If any organization has well defined goals, and can develop a strategy to achieve them, it should be half the battle won. But it is seen that execution fails. Why should that be so? It may be the fault of the team that executes the strategy, or certain unknown factors that unexpectedly or unknowingly creep in while executing the plan.

What should be done? Ideally the team that forms the strategies should consider the factors such as who are the people who will execute, does the company have the capacity to execute, what if any unexpected change or event occurs while executing, what are the risks involved, and so on. No strategy can be created without taking into account the ability of the people who will be executing it. One may create a great marketing plan but if the field marketing staff fails to understand and execute the game, it is bound to fail and then the blame game begins.

Can a company make a single team that not only creates the strategy but is also responsible to execute it? This will eliminate many such hiccups on the way. I am a good strategist and not a good executor. You are a bad strategist but a good executor on the ground. What if such arguments are presented by the team under formation? All right, how about creating a strategy and keep the execution team in the loop throughout the process of creating strategy? This creates another set of problems. The views of both the teams may be so different that no positive outcome will ever result.

In real life, more complications arise and especially in large organizations, the complexities increase. The only solution for the top management is to set goals and discuss them with every one. After getting every one in confidence, create strategies and let every one participate in the strategy formation. Decide about what is totally achievable and why may be achievable. Let the team that will execute commit itself to achieve what is totally achievable and promise them with rewards if they manage to achieve the other part also. The synergy between the strategy makers and the executors will ultimately decide the final outcome.

Business Card Printing

December 23rd, 2008

123print.co.uk offers high-quality business card printing services and other custom-printed products for businesses and consumers from United Kingdom. Other products include: address labels, letterhead, envelopes, postcards, note pads, greeting cards and more. Free templates available for custom design using online studio. Affordable products and fast services backed by satisfaction guarantee!

It’s 123print.co.uk’s mission to manufacture and dispatch all orders received by 11am GMT by the next business day. 123print.co.uk dispatchs via Surface Mail, unless noted on the product offer. You may select expedited delivery for even faster service.

Business Financial Services

December 13th, 2008

Banks provide their financial services to clients through personal online banking, making banking more convenient for individuals who may not have the time to go to banks. However, these services are not only offered to clients’ personal accounts but are also available to owners of small businesses and to corporations as well. In the same way that personal banking is made easier, everyday banking is made simple, cost effective, and fast so that business owners can devote more time in running their businesses.

The services that banks provide for business-owners range from simple bookkeeping to sophisticated cash-management services; tailor-fit money-management tools are also provided to help you increase the efficiency of your cash flow. Some of the services that banks provide to business-owners include providing checking accounts, savings accounts, payment processing, and cash management. These are aimed to help you have easy access to your funds, earn interest, and manage and grow your money, which is very important in running a business. For corporate and institutional clients, banks have also lined up a number of services that can help you with your banking needs. These services include asset management, which can help you supervise and keep track of your assets and their performance. Benefits and retirement services are also provided to you so that the bank can manage the salaries and benefits that your corporation provides to employees. Other services include access to capital markets, cash management and deposit services, domestic correspondent banking, insurance and international banking for your export needs, lending and financing, risk management, sales and trading, and trust services.

Business Opportunity – Home Based Business Opportunities

November 15th, 2008

There are many business opportunities in the home-based business world. You just need to know where to look for them. Business opportunities present themselves to the Internet, business acquaintances, friends and family and just about anywhere you look. When you see a need for something, this is a business opportunity. You must have an entrepreneurial sense of curiosity in spirit make your own business opportunities in the home-based business world. A business opportunity can come from a friend who needs some writing done for his or her business and they hire you as a ghostwriter, this is a business opportunity to make extra money. And then you can hire yourself out as a ghostwriter because now you have experience. And if writing is something you enjoy and are good at, you can write articles for other people and their websites that is a perfect business opportunity for you to make extra money. A business opportunity can be found everywhere on the Internet if you know which keywords to type in the search engines. You can type in business opportunity and you will get a whole host of information regarding business opportunities. And depending on what you want to do, like selling or helping others set up their own business opportunities you can find it on the Internet. However the Internet is not the only place to find a business opportunity. A business opportunity can present itself to the newspaper – in the one ads, through your friends and family, just about anywhere.

If you sell a product or service from a website or out of your home there are many business opportunities when you meet other business owners for you to trade website links or information where you might become an affiliate of each other’s businesses. This means you will be selling for the other person and they will be selling for you. This will broaden your sales team – even if you didn’t have one you have one now – and you will get more business this way and so will the other person. When you’re at a party like a dinner party or a meeting and you start talking with people about your business opportunity its called networking and they in turn talk to you about their business. It’s always a good idea to carry business cards with your website address on them so people can check out your website and your products and services so they know if they want to join you in selling your products and services. The same goes for you, you want to check out their products and services to make sure this something that you want to represent to your business associates. This is a great way to produce more business opportunity to make more money for everyone involved.