Small Business

5 Ways to Get Money for Your Business Start Up

August 28, 2012 by Tim McMahon

Small Business Loans and other Financing-

Starting a business is an exciting experience, but it’s also costly. You’ll need money to rent office space and buy equipment and supplies. You’ll also need to have money set aside for marketing so that you can help your business grow. If you are going to have employees, you will need money to pay them. You’ll also need to pay for all other expenses associated with opening a new business. Fortunately, there are several ways for you to get the cash you need.

1. Sell Your Assets

Starting a business might require you to make a few sacrifices. Look over everything you own, and decide which assets are worth selling to help finance your business. Consider selling a second car that you don’t absolutely need or time-shares that you hardly ever use. If you own more than one property, look into keeping your primary residence and selling the rest. You should also take inventory of items you have in your home that might be worth a significant amount of money, such as jewelry or antiques.

2. Apply for a Secured Loan

Bank loans are another option for getting money for your business. If you’ve never opened a business before, most banks will offer you a secured loan. You’ll have to decide what to use as collateral for it. In most cases, this can be your car or your house. Make sure you’re willing to risk losing whatever you’re using as collateral if you fall behind on your payments.

3. Impress an Angel Investor

An angel investor is someone who will help finance your business under certain conditions. They might want to be part of your company as a silent partner or a member of the board of directors. In order to convince an angel investor to help you, you’ll need to impress them with your [Read more…] about 5 Ways to Get Money for Your Business Start Up

Five Things to Consider When Outsourcing Your Payroll

August 21, 2012 by Giddi Roteo

Payroll-

Your business has grown, and now the task of managing your weekly payroll has become unmanageable. Or maybe you – or your staff – simply don’t have the knowledge and expertise to take on the payroll every period while also trying to manage all of the tax and benefit issues that come along with the process. Whatever your reason for deciding to outsource your payroll functions, there are some important things to consider when you choose a service. It might be tempting to go with a local company or the least expensive payroll service, but when it comes to handling this vital procedure, there is more to think about than just proximity and cost.

Is the payroll system user-friendly?

Even when you hand off payroll tasks to an outside source, you still need to be involved with the process. You need to provide personal employee information, details about hours worked, benefits and deduction information, and of course, banking information. In some cases, this information is static, but inevitably there will be changes. When comparing service providers, request a trial run of the software that they use for information gathering to see how user-friendly it is and how efficiently you can add and change information. If the system is too complicated, try something else. Outsourcing is supposed to [Read more…] about Five Things to Consider When Outsourcing Your Payroll

Outsourcing Business- Tips to Reduce Overhead

August 8, 2012 by Guest Contributor

Outsourcing in Business

Few situations are more unpleasant in business than finding yourself faced with the dreaded spectre of insolvency. Unfortunately, this situation is by no means uncommon. On the contrary, recently released figures from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission have revealed that the number of insolvency court appointments has been on a steady rise from as early as the 2007-2008 fiscal year. However, while there were 9,200 such appointments in five years ago, 2011-2012 saw over 11,700 such cases. To call insolvency a plague of the national business scene would be to spread pointless panic, yet the growing trend is apparent at first glance. So what can a business owner do, to reduce expenses? There are several simple solutions available to any company, but especially appropriate for small enterprises in the modern information age to reduce business overhead and Employment Costs .

Don’t Be Afraid of Outsourcing

Many entrepreneurs and start-up owners prefer to keep everything in-house, out of a poorly understood need to oversee every small step of their business plan. While precaution and daily updated insights are valuable commodities, it is results that matter. An efficient manager should know how and when to delegate responsibility—what is more, they should also figure out how to avoid having staff costs running through the roof. More simply put, there are aspects in any business (account keeping, IT maintenance and legal consultancy spring to mind as prime examples) that are better off outsourced. As online presence is becoming increasingly important for current business-making, it is an equally viable option to pay an expert for handling your website, blog and corporate Social Media accounts. Don’t spend a small fortune on a permanent employee, but rather employ freelancing, while enjoying lower overall costs for possibly better services. In addition to personnel, in the 21st century, it is possible to outsource equipment rentals, and even real estate. [Read more…] about Outsourcing Business- Tips to Reduce Overhead

7 Ways Your Business Can Reduce Energy Costs

July 28, 2012 by Guest Contributor

Reduce Energy Costs

Reducing your business energy costs can make a substantial difference in what your operations cost you each month. Whether you are a large or small business, combined with payroll; the cost of water, gas, electricity and other resources are a substantial portion of your expenses. If you are concerned about the rising cost of energy and your ability to remain competitive, there are a few things that you can do to help lower these costs.

Learn about energy savings. When you need to reduce the amount of energy that you are using on a daily basis, there are a few simple things that can make a profound impact. Each company has its own major energy consumers. Large companies generally use florescent lighting so unlike homeowners simply changing your light bulbs to CFLs is probably not an option. But looking at other lighting consumption might be a possibility. Motion detectors can be installed that will automatically turn off lighting when certain business areas are not in use. Policies should be in place to require that minimal lighting be maintained in areas not in use. [Read more…] about 7 Ways Your Business Can Reduce Energy Costs

Why Businesses Should Retain Older Workers

July 26, 2012 by Simon Rattray

Retaining Older Workers

The UK is suffering one of the longest recessions on record and the U.S. has one of the highest unemployment rates in decades. Although unemployment has come down slightly in past few months, one of the main problems is long-term youth unemployment. The main reason behind the sustained level of youth unemployment is a lack of jobs generally, but particularly a lack of apprenticeships.

However, another reason that has been put forward by some is that older workers are staying in the workplace longer than they have in the past and are thus preventing the younger generation from getting a foot on the employment ladder. This may or may not be true and correlation does not prove causation of course. That is to say just because more older workers are staying in their jobs does not mean that younger generation are being held back. In any instance, retaining older workers can yield many benefits for a business, some of which are outlined below…

Experience

Older workers by virtue of their age have more experience than younger workers. This not only includes actual work experience but also older workers have more life experience. This can prove invaluable in a huge number of situations including how they interact with other staff, how they handle customers or clients and how they conduct themselves within the business. In addition, life experience can often be readily translated into work skills. For example a Mum returning to the work place can apply skills used in managing a family to managing an office. [Read more…] about Why Businesses Should Retain Older Workers

Payroll Systems for Small Businesses

July 21, 2012 by Guest Contributor

Why do You need a Payroll System?

One of the challenges that comes with starting a new business is figuring out all the systems that you need have in place to run things. If you have any employees, one of the necessary items that you’ll need is a good payroll system. If you have never chosen a payroll system before, it can be a little bit intimidating. Payroll costs are one of your largest business expenses so it pays to choose a payroll system carefully. Here are a few things that you should look for when choosing a payroll system.

Ability to Integrate With Accounting Software

When you are using a payroll system, it needs to be able to integrate into your current accounting system. If you don’t have an accounting system yet, you have a little bit of flexibility when it comes to choosing both of them. Your payroll system needs to be able to download the entries from your accounting system. This will make things a lot easier on you, instead of having to manually enter all the information twice.

Scalable System

You may also want to choose a payroll system that is considered scalable. If you have a payroll system that is highly scalable, it can grow with your business. This makes it possible for you to avoid switching payroll software once your company starts to grow. If your company is highly successful in gross quickly, you don’t want to have to completely redo the payroll system at that point. [Read more…] about Payroll Systems for Small Businesses

4 Ways Outsourcing Payroll Could Benefit Your Business

July 20, 2012 by John Hughes

Outsourcing Payroll

If people are the heart of every business then it could be said that payroll is the blood. Everyone likes getting paid and in this economic climate, it is more important than ever that payroll is carried out on time and with the utmost accuracy.

It’s natural for business owners to want to be in control of their payroll but as an operational task, it can be extremely time-consuming. Nevertheless hiring a payroll manager can also be a costly affair as you will want to ensure that the person you take on is fully qualified for the role. Here are 4 reasons your business could benefit from outsourcing your payroll to the experts:

1. Outsourcing Payroll could help your business save money.

Payroll software systems can be costly and you will need to factor in the cost of employing someone to take care of payroll responsibilities. Labour costs of in-house payroll are not the only factor to consider; the price of postage, office space, stationery, printing and other costs may not seem like great expenses but can add up rapidly.

Running a cost/benefit analysis to estimate the overall costs incurred by your payroll each period compared to the fees charged by an outsourced payroll firm for a full payroll management service will help determine whether this is cost effective for your business. [Read more…] about 4 Ways Outsourcing Payroll Could Benefit Your Business

The Basics of Starting a Small Home-Based Business

June 20, 2012 by Guest Contributor

A Small Home-Based Business

In today’s economy, there are definitely a lot of people that are struggling to find jobs, who don’t know where to turn. Instead of sitting around waiting for their unemployment benefits to run out or for someone to offer them a job, they are using the grace period of unemployment checks to start a small home-based business. A small home based business allows you to take control of your own financial situation, instead of having to rely on anyone else. In a small business, education and experience aren’t as important as the ability to get the job done. Having your own business also entitles you to a variety of tax benefits. If you are interested in starting a home-based business, here are a few things that you’ll need to do in order to be successful.

Handle the Business Formalities

Small Home based business, home red — Home business, home red—nikcname (Flickr.com)

A Small home based business is not a hobby or a lark it is serious business. So just like with a large business, you’ll need to handle some formalities when starting your business. These ensure that you are doing everything legitimately, and that you will not be in violation of any local laws. When getting started, most localities require you to get a business license.

To get a business license, you’ll need to go to the local court house and pay a fee and possibly answer a few questions. Some localities regulate the types of business you can run from your home. Most allow work done on a home computer or over the internet but some may have zoning restrictions if you are going to store chemicals or have customers visiting your home office.

Most of the time, you’ll also want to set up some kind of business entities so that you do not have to put any of your personal assets at risk. Setting up a corporation or an LLC is pretty simple, and can usually be done by filling out a few more forms and paying a state filing fee. Filing fees for an LLC vary by state and can range from $50 per year to $1000 or more depending on whether you are in a state like Delaware or California.