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Reviewing Regulatory and Obligatory Requirements > Small Business Management Checklist 13

Regulatory and obligatory requirements refer to the rules and regulations that govern the establishment and daily operations of businesses. Regulations and obligations vary with the type of business and the industry therein and as such, it is advisable to conduct research and seek legal and business advice before establishing a business in a given industry. It is important for small business owners to ensure that their businesses keep up-to-date with the regulations and obligations of their specific industry to avoid inconveniences and disruptions in their daily operations.

Banks, creditors and other financing institutions consider compliance with the regulatory and obligatory requirements of your business as an indicator of your business’ financial health and stability. Further, consider familiarizing with the nature and structure of businesses to understand the associated tax requirements and determine the viability of the structure and tax to your business.

Consider the following factors when reviewing your business’ regulatory and obligatory requirements.

Part 1 – Regulatory Obligations for Sale of Goods and Services

1 Have you reinforced the safety of goods and services?

2 Are consumer guarantees honored?

3 Do your standard form contracts contain unfair terms?

4 Is your business complying with lay-by agreements and price rules?

Part 2 – Regulatory Obligations for Workers’ Employments

5 Are you compliant with injury laws?

6 Have you undertaken workers’ compensation insurance?

7 Do you keep employee records?

8 Have you established a safe work environment?

9 Are there provisions for equal opportunity laws?

10 Is your business compliant with workers’ pay and employment requirements?

11 Are you compliant with tax and superannuation requirements?

Part 3 – Legal Requirements

12 Is your business name registered?

13 Have you undertaken business insurance?

14 Have you obtained an Employer Identification Number (EIN)?

15 Is your business entity designated properly?

16 Are you conversant and compliant with federal tax laws?

17 Are you compliant with the after-hiring rules and regulations?

18 Have you obtained the appropriate licenses and permits for your business?

19 Do you practice proper bookkeeping practices?

20 Have you taken measures to protect your intellectual property (IP)?

21 Is your business compliant with security laws?

22 Do you have an established privacy policy?

23 Is your founder’s agreement in writing?

Notes:

Always check with your state’s consumer laws and acts to understand the specific regulatory and obligatory requirements for your business

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Setting Up Good Financial Habits For Your Business > Small Business Management Checklist 12

Your daily financial habits have an impact on your business’ financial health and ultimately affect your business’ growth. Sound financial habits are vital for the survival and subsequent growth of the business thereof. In addition, adopting sound financial habits enhances financial management in the sense that it puts a business in a better position to utilize the business’ financial resources effectively, boosts long-term financial stability, leads to achievement of set commitments and goals, for your business, as well as setting up structures that are crucial to the growth and success of the business.

A business that implements effective strategies when it comes to the planning, controlling and monitoring of financial resources in a business is likely to foster good financial habits therein. To this end therefore, it is important that business owners determine appropriate structures, policies, and strategies that are likely to influence financial habits positively.

Here is an overview of potentially good financial habits for your business.

Part 1 – Financial Planning

1 Develop a small business structure

2 Consider deferring or reducing taxes

3 Ensure your financial records are updated

4 Setup internal financial protocols and controls for your business

5 Align your spending to your financial goals

6 Monitor and track your business’ financial progress

Part 2 – Managing your Budget

7 Create a workable budget

8 Constantly monitor your income, expenses, and cash flow

9 Evaluate financing options based on your budget

10 Track business spending accurately

11 Always maintain funds in your cash reserves

Part 3 – Managing Investments

12 Diversify your investment portfolio

13 Consider investing cash inflows

14 Maintain a cash cushion for rainy days

Part 4 – Good Business Practices

15 Ensure your accounting records are up to date

16 Check that your overheads are controlled

17 Address arising issues swiftly

18 Understand your cash flow

19 Adopt good book-keeping techniques

20 Analyze your P&L statements to determine your business position

21 Update your balance sheet regularly

22 Monitor your inventory closely

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Establishing Sound Book-keeping Techniques > Small Business Management Checklist 11

Every business is obligated by law to keep financial records (bookkeeping) that pertain to its operations. Bookkeeping is instrumental in the sense that it helps keep and track financial records of a business’ financial transactions within a specified period. Effective bookkeeping strategies foster strategic decision-making processes in a business. In addition to keeping a record of your business’ financial activities, bookkeeping further saves time and resources in that your business’ financial records are readily available when needed.

Effective bookkeeping techniques enable business owners to easily analyze and keep track of the business’ financial performance and by extension analyze the financial health of the business thus pointing out discrepancies and issues in the accounts. To this effect therefore, bookkeeping is crucial to the everyday operations of the business and more so in addressing problems earlier on.

This checklist highlights bookkeeping best practices for your business.

1 Select proper business accounting software

2 Avoid mixing personal and business checking accounts

3 Use owner’s draws to pay yourself

4 Avoid spending cash sales

5 Check that all your sales documentations are linked with a specified deposit

6 Use a business check card for your business expenses

7 Ensure your checking account is reconciled on a monthly basis

8 Creative an effective sales tracking system

9 Obtain a separate business credit card for your business expenses

10 Ensure your business expenses are paid first

11 Always run a profit and loss statement for your business

12 Ensure your sales and purchase ledgers are reconciled

13 Maintain an organized chart of accounts (COA)

14 Keep a record of sales and purchases in the ledger

15 Keep regular schedules for financial admin duties

16 Minimize access to your financial records

17 Consider keeping both electronic backups and paper copies of your financial records

18 Track customer invoices and payments

19 Check that appropriate employee and contractor forms are filed

20 Consider hiring a professional

21 Consider using a debit card for all business expenses

Notes:

Use tools such as Quickbooks, and Xero to optimize cloud-based bookkeeping
Consider outsourcing to professional bookkeepers
Leverage tools such as a register tape to track your sales

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How to Become a Thought Leader/Influencer to Sell More Affiliate Products > Affiliate Marketing

Selling affiliate products is a business model that appeals very much to people who want to start earning money as easily and quickly as possible. That’s because affiliate marketing allows you to begin earning money immediately: you don’t need to build a product, or to spend a lot of money allowing someone else to build it. This also means that you don’t need to take any risks.

But herein also lies the problem. Because affiliate marketing naturally appeals to those looking for quick fixes, it means that very often, they will attempt to take the fastest route to the point where they start making money. The problem? The fastest route is not always the best. And by taking “shortcuts,” you can actually risk missing the highest earnings.

The Two Options

There are two ways you can earn money from affiliate products. One is to rush to find a product, then quickly create a sales page (a single web page that is dedicated to selling that item), and then send people to that page through advertising.

The other method is to spend time building up an audience first. To build an audience that trusts you and listens to what you have to say, which you can then market a product to. This way, you are flipping the formula on the head: gaining an audience then finding a product to match, rather than the other way around.

Let me tell you this: the latter option is by far the superior strategy. Why? Because when you build an audience that trusts you, and that wants to hear from you, you have a direct route to an audience that is qualified and perfectly targeted. This can be the difference between launching to 500 orders on day one, versus working hard to gain a slow trickle.

When someone trusts you, they will trust your recommendation. And when you already have an audience of thousands, it’s FAR easier to get the word out.

How to Get There

So how do you get to this point? It’s a challenge that many marketers struggle with, but the key is to play the long game. That means spending time delivering amazing value and high quality content, and using this in order to slowly build up momentum. You must have something new to say in your niche, and you must choose a topic that you are passionate about. That will resonate with your audience, and as a result, they will hang on your every word.

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What Makes Webinars so Effective? > Webinars

You may have heard that webinars are some of the most effective ways to connect with an audience. After all, that’s why you are interested in hosting one. But why are they so effective and how well do they stack up to the other forms of communication and instruction out there. In this article, we will explore the reasons that webinars work so well for connecting to an audience and passing on information so that you can determine whether or not you should hold you own webinar.

Webinars Establish Your Credibility

If you want to be thought of as an expert in a particular niche, webinars can develop that expertise. When you deliver a seminar over the web to a large audience, you automatically get credibility points and it makes people more apt to buy things that you recommend as well as being more willing to pay for your information.

Information Gained in Webinars Has Staying Power

When people watch a video, they sometimes tune out important concepts, particularly if the video isn’t that compelling. But the live aspects of webinars make people much more willing to listen and pay attention.

Webinars Provide Information in Real Time

When you want to pass on information right away, a webinar can be a great tool. People get the information live, as you are delivering it, rather than later on, or worse, secondhand.

Webinars Are Convenient

Webinars are really convenient in comparison to actual seminars. People only need to travel to their computer – or in some cases to their mobile phone.

Webinars Provide Actual Answers

When you host a live webinar, you can actually answer your attendees questions. This is one of the big benefits of a webinar over other types of information transfer. People can ask you about something if they don’t understand it.

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How to Solve the Problem of Niche Saturation > Niche Marketing

There’s a big problem when it comes to creating blogs or selling products online – and that’s niche saturation.

What we mean by this, is that there are hundreds of different topics out there but when it comes to the most popular and the most profitable there are really three major ones: money, fitness and dating. After all, these are the subjects that make the world go round!

So if you want to create a blog or a website with the biggest potential for growth and the biggest possible audience, you’ll likely want to write about one of those topics. But here’s the problem: any of those topics will mean going up against a huge amount of competition and struggling to get noticed. There are thousands of big fitness websites and thousands of eBooks on the topic to go along with them. These niches are saturated.

So how do you stand out? Here are some options:

Hone in on One Area

One option is to hone in on a specific aspect of your niche. ‘Fitness’ is a massive topic for instance, so instead why not consider going a little narrower – by looking specifically at running, or flexibility, or even calf strength.

Hone in on One Demographic

Another option is to look at a specific demographic that might be interested in your subject. For example, you could write about fitness for bloggers, or fitness for teenagers.

Go Broader

Conversely you can also go broader. Instead of focussing on fitness, how about ‘bodybuilding lifestyle’ which could also incorporate dressing for your physique and finding good meals.

Create a New Angle

Or why not create an entirely new angle? A cool example of this might be ‘Art of Manliness’ which is a website that has created its own niche entirely, despite it overlapping with many of the big ones we’ve covered.

Get Personal

Another way to stand out in a new niche is to ‘get personal’ and to turn your website into a personal blog where you use a personal brand to attract attention. This is what Tim Ferriss has done with the Four Hour Blog and what Pat Flynn has done with Smart Passive Income. There are plenty more examples but either way, putting a face and a name on your product makes it much more individual and much more memorable.

Find a New Route to Market

Even if you aren’t different in anyway, you can succeed if you find a new way to tap into the market that hasn’t been exploited yet.

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Financing Your Business > Small Business Management Checklist 10

At some point, considering financing options becomes inevitable for many business owners regardless of the size of the business. The quest for financing varies with the nature of business and the needs therein. When opting for business financing, it is important to clarify why you need financing and whether it is absolutely necessary for you to seek financing.

There are a plethora of ways through which you can finance your business ranging from personal funding, raising funds through family and friends, through venture capitalists, angel investors and loans from banks and other financial institutions. In addition to making necessary preparations for your financing, it is important to research the different financing options in order to determine the option that is most palatable to your business. Further, it is equally important to review your eligibility for a loan and more specifically, review your intentions for the funding and repayment schedule/plan.

Here are factors to consider when opting for business financing.

Part 1 – Reviewing your Need for Financing

1 Pinpoint specific goals for your financing

2 Determine the most appropriate financing option for your set goal

3 Provide a detailed plan of your intended use for the funding

4 Identify the ideal time frame for the funding (is your need time-sensitive)

5 Select the lender and product based on the time sensitivity of your need

6 Determine how much funding you require

7 Set out your ideal repayment schedule

8 Reference your revenue projections to set out repayment schedules (long or short-term)

9 Analyze your business and personal credit score to determine your eligibility

Part 2 – Tips for Business Financing

10 Invest your own funds

11 Demonstrate your ability to manage debts

12 Review your collateral options

13 Evaluate the risks and associated costs of different financing options

14 Check that your working capital is retained

15 Demonstrate your business’ profitability

16 Set up good financial habits for your business

17 Leverage professional expertise in evaluating funding options

18 Check that personal funds are separated from business funds

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4 Simple Secrets For Creating A Successful Membership Site > Membership Sites

Anyone can launch a membership site, but not everyone will be successful. The essential element of a successful membership website is having a clear ‘why,’ or the value that you will serve up to your members. Everything else serves your ‘why.’ However, even if you have a fantastic ‘why,’ it is no guarantee that you will find success. Here are four secrets of successful membership sites that you can apply to your website.

Content

The most likely reason why your members joined your site is to have access to the useful and valuable, expert content that presents solutions to their specific, pressing, and common problems that they’ve been experiencing. As long as you can continue to provide them with high-quality content that helps them solve their problems, your members are going to stay on and give referrals to their family and friends. Here are some ways you can continue to provide your members with excellent content.

Create a content calendar
Be sure to set aside time for you to research
Update older content
Experiment with content type
Consider including member-generated content
Never forget who the material is for

Customer Experience

The customer experience doesn’t just begin when they sign-up for your site. Their entire experience consists of learning who you are, to reading your content on your blog, to opting into your mailing list, signing up for your site, to purchasing your products, and finally canceling their membership. It is essential that you create a positive experience for their entire journey because it will increase your likeliness of developing a loyal member and improving the number of referrals you receive.

Change

Developing an online business inevitably involves rapid change. What is popular today, may be gone tomorrow, and what might seem obscure today might suddenly be the talk of the town tomorrow. A successful membership site will never stop adapting to the current trends and the preferences of their members.

Community

When you have an active, thriving community on your membership site, it will increase the chances that your members will stay. Without an engaged community, your site will never live up to its fullest potential. There are several ways that you can take care of your community.

Applaud successes and celebrate the wins of your members.
Cherish the members you have more than those you don’t.
Be a part of the community.

The central element that will determine whether your membership site is successful or not is in the value that you give your members. Everything else is secondary. Having a good grasp on these four fundamental principles will put you on the path to long-term success.

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Undertaking Strategic Financial Tasks > Small Business Management Checklist 9

Financial tasks encompass activities within your organization/business that are concerned with the preparation of financial documents and statements. Such tasks should be performed regularly (if not daily) to avoid jeopardizing the quality of your business’ financial data. Essentially, financial tasks are instrumental in so far as the production of P&L statements and balance sheet are concerned.

In a similar vein, strategic financial tasks are crucial in determining the position of your business, evaluating whether or not your business is running in profits, as well as determining or projecting the future direction of your business. Delays in undertaking financial tasks can spell doom for your business in terms of preventing access to financial data, which ultimately affects your business operations and curtails your business flow.

This checklist delves into the strategic financial tasks to consider for your business.

1 Have you reviewed your business’ performance?

2 Does your budget reflect your strategic and financial targets?

3 Are there any gaps between your budget and the actual results?

4 How often do you undertake sensitivity analysis for your business?

5 Have you ascertained your business’ compliance with debt covenants?

6 Have you prepared a P&L statement?

7 Do you have a balance sheet?

8 Have you prepared a cash flow statement?

9 How often do you monitor and track interest rates on your business loans?

10 Have you prepared a cash flow forecast for your business?

11 Are future cash flow shortages addressed in your projections?

12 Have you conduct market valuation for your assets?

13 Are your cash flow projections updated to reflect actual results?

14 Do you monitor and track your ongoing cash positions?

15 Do you have an income P&L budget?

16 Does your P&L budget incorporate financial and strategic targets?

17 Are your business sales and production targets set?

18 Have you undertaken a variance and break-even analysis?

19 Are your financial statements analyzed against set financial targets?

20 Are your key ratios compared to industry averages?

21 Have you set targets for financial performance?

22 Are your set targets included in your budget and strategic plans?

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Investment Management And Maintaining Good Business Credit > Small Business Management Checklist 8

Conceptually, investment management entails the creation and maintenance of investment portfolios. Investment management is crucial to businesses and especially startups in the sense that it is an income diversification strategy and further provides a hedge against losses. Effective investment management strategies are characterized by good returns and enable businesses to have access to liquid cash in case of emergencies. Further, a good investment management strategy helps secure the future of your business.

A good business credit score is beneficial to a business to the effect that lenders, banks, and other financial institutions use your credit score to determine your viability and qualification or lack thereof for a loan. Essentially, your business’ credit score denotes your business’ financial health and ultimately impacts your credit worthiness either positively or negatively. It is important for businesses to maintain good credit scores since your credit score can make the difference between the ability of your business to access capital.

This checklist will provide a guide for investment management in the first part and the second part will detail points to factor in when maintaining a good business credit score.

Part 1 – Maintaining Effective Investment Management Strategies

1 Ensure that your portfolio is diversified

2 Make systematic investments towards your business goals

3 Separate your personal investments from your business’ industry of operation

4 Ensure that you have built cash reserves for your business

5 Separate an emergency fund for your personal needs from that of your business

6 Consider undertaking requisite insurance for different needs to protect all your assets

7 Analyze your business’ appetite for risks

8 Analyze your business’ securities that are available for investing

9 Consider valuing your assets on the basis of individual merit

10 Consider hiring professionals to undertake your portfolio diversification

Part 2 – Maintaining Good Credit Score for your Business

11 Check that your business bills are paid on time

12 Maintain low business debt levels

13 Ensure your personal credit score is intact

14 Monitor your credit report periodically and report any discrepancies

15 Avoid cancelling old business credit cards

16 Always aim for lower credit balances for your business

17 Consider taking a short-term business loan and repaying it on time to prove your capabilities in handling credit

18 Avoid loan defaults and negative cash flows

19 Build good rapport with your vendors

20 Maintain a good reputation for your business

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Compiling A Profit & Loss Statement For Your Business > Small Business Management Checklist 7

A profit and loss statement (income statement) is among the most effective tools for analyzing the profitability of your business. A P&L statement typically measures a business’ revenue and expenses monthly, quarterly, or yearly. Essentially, a P&L statement uses the business income, the operating costs, and the total expenses to calculate the profit or loss incurred by a business in a given duration. More to aiding in the managing and tracking of a company’s financials, the P&L statement helps in identifying profits, losses and break-even points for a business thus putting the business in a better position to identify and address arising problems in a timely manner.

When effectively utilized, the P&L is an instrumental financial management reporting tool that highlights high level expertise or lack thereof the handling of a business and provides insights for the growth of your business.

This checklist will provide a step-by-step guide for the compilation of a P&L statement for your business.

Step 1 – Compiling the Gross Profit

1 Are your sources of revenue recorded?

2 Is there a record of your cost of goods sold (COGS)?

3 Have you included the cost of labor, raw materials, shipping, factory costs and delivery in your COGS?

4 What is your total revenue?

5 Have you calculated your gross profit?

Step 2 – Compiling the Net Income

6 Have you listed the business’ operating expenses?

7 Do the operating expenses cover salaries, ads, research, consultations, R&D, outsourcing, and asset depreciations?

8 Are the selling expenses separated from the general and administrative expenses?

9 What is your profit before taxes?

10 Have you deducted allowances for both state and federal taxes from the income tax?

11 Have you calculated your net income?

Step 3 – Compiling your Retained Earnings (RE)

12 What are the previous year’s RE?

13 Have added the total of net income/loss to the RE?

Step 4 – Reviewing your P&L Statement

14 Have you evaluated the accuracy of your P&L statement?

15 Are occurring discrepancies analyzed and reconciled?

16 Have you leveraged accounting software and other tools to create your P&L?

17 Are you leveraging metrics such as net profit margin and ROA to analyze your P&L?

18 Does your P&L form a basis for the development of a cash flow projection?

Notes:

Recording your sources of revenue is important in detailing and breaking down the sources of your business’ income
Make regular print outs of your P&L to track progress

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