Does My Small Business Need a Budget?

"I only have a small business, I don't need a budget."

"I don't have enough money to budget."

For many small business owners, the word "budget" is something for the bigger company - maybe they'll have one when their business "grows up."

What is a Budget?
The simple explanation is a budget is a plan for how you will manage all financial resources and all expenses for your business. The basic equation that you want to demonstrate in a budget is as follows:

(estimated )Sales minus (estimated) Expenses = Profit (or loss)

All About Business Cards

Business cards are a great way for your business to get it's name out into the world. Small, and convenient, these little cards provide your customers with your name and all your contact information, and because they're portable, your customers will be able to take your name with them wherever they go (an advantage over online advertising).

Many companies provide fully customizable cards, allowing you to choose from font size and color to a unique logo. A good business card company will even let you choose the paper thickness and finish

For those of you who do not wish to customize, many providers come with pre-designed templates where you only have to insert your information for a quick and easy card ready to be shipped.

For those of you who wish to exercise your creative muscle, here are a few tips to follow:

1. Less is More:
It is pretty easy to get carried away with all the bells and whistles offered, but it usually doesn't take much for that little wallet sized card to get filled up with unnecessary decorations. Try to keep the main point in focus. Stick to the basics, this will also help get your message across quicker and easier for your customers.

Importance of a Good Financial Recordkeeping System

Micro-business owners wear many hats.  But for many, the "bookkeeping hat" is one that is not always a good fit. Many of them lack the interest, time, or knowledge to maintain their books properly, but they still resist hiring a bookkeeper --- claiming "they can't afford it".

I often respond, "Can you afford an audit, pay unnecessary penalties and interest, or go to jail"?  I know that might seem to be an overly-dramatic statement.  But I have approached potential clients who have said that they kept their books in their "heads".  I've come to realize that meant their idea of record keeping was to throw their receipts in a box, if they kept any, and called it a day.  And at tax time, they roughly estimated their income and expenses --- often based on the figures they used the previous year.  No matter how many times I have heard a similar version of this bookkeeping practice, I literally cringe.

Vision Directed Interviews

You've probably read numerous job interview tips which list the ways to respond to the difficult interview questions: Tell me about Yourself; What are your work-related weaknesses?; Why are you leaving your current employer? These are the usual dreaded questions that we all expect to hear from interviewers. Typically interviewees are advised to create well-prepared and rehearsed scripts to respond to these dreaded questions. And so, during the course of the interview, interviewees sit on the edge of their seats waiting to respond, trying to remember the correct answers. And consequently, the interview becomes a race, a highly tense setting designed to stay one step ahead of the other with scripted conversation and pre-planned positioning and second-guessing. The possibility of authentically assessing the merits of the position and being able to evaluate how you might fit within the company's culture and mission is minimized in this scenario.

10 Easy Tips to Help You Profit From Your Website

Hundreds of thousands of webmasters across the world make money online with their websites. Why not you? Here are 10 easy tips that you can use on your website to make it profitable. As with any good website however, you first need quality original content!

1. Google AdSense - Make money selling advertising space. While banner ads are not worth your time for the most part, Google AdSense is. Many web site owners make a comfortable living off of AdSense profit alone.

2. Affiliate Marketing - Make money referring your website traffic to other websites. Don't have a product? That is 100% O.K. Just add someone else product to your site by joining an affiliate program and forget about it. If you have related content (free information) you will see a slow trickle of income from your affiliate links.

9 Reasons For Having A Website

While promoting my website design business I contact many small and medium size enterprises who don't have a website. Sometimes it is the perceived cost of a website that puts them off, but more often it is the belief that no one will want to contact them via the internet. The same companies would be horrified at the thought of not being in the telephone directory, but they don't appreciate how pervasive the internet has become and how important it is to have a presence.

Here are my 9 compelling reasons for having a website.