Do you think that your workload is hampering your killer marketing activities? by: Arun Tibrewal

You need an extra effort not the extra workload. Today when competition is high and consumers have many options to choose, an extra effort towards improvement of your product, managing your customers and taking care of other aspects of your business will give you advantage over your competition. You need to multiply your time may be you can keep your margin low, but will give you more volume and increase in your turnover. Most SME’s start well during there initial stage of launching the business but looses its consistency do to pool of workloads on its day today life. It is often seen that hiring more employees gives extra load on limited earning resources resulting less revenue than expected. You need to put more efforts on Marketing and concentrate on your other activities so that you can do business with an ease. Outsourcing is one of the solutions for small and medium business entities too, that give them more opportunity to utilize there valuable time on marketing and other efforts. (Provided they get an honest an able outsourcing partner.) Outsourcing is hiring a third party service provider to participate as a team member in your organization and share your workload. You may need to outsource your projects to save your time and get an expert professional to do the job for you. It is helpful to you in terms of, managing and multiplying your time so that you can focus on other important activities of your business needs. This is another effective tool to stay ahead with your competitions. By sharing your workload you get enough time to manage your business and think of its better promotions. You can outsource many things mainly your daily business activities i.e. accounting, document processing, Web site maintenance, Secretarial work, or other works need manual operations as well as marketing services. Below are some reasons to give an idea about benefits of outsourcing. 1.You save time in finding, interviewing and selecting the new employees by hiring an agency or search for your own. 2.You save time on providing them proper training as well as they need to adjust with your work culture too. 3.You can save your time, which you need to do all time-consuming paperwork requires hiring a permanent employee to your organization. 4.You do not need to buy extra equipments for your existing setup. 5.You save cost in your daily office expenses as well as recurring employee charges i.e. Taxes, Insurance, Medical, leave and many more. 6.You can utilize your time in better way and can deliver better output for your business. 7.If you are a contractor, you can hire a subcontractor and focus on more orders. 8.If you are marketing professional you can double your marketing efforts and can have a wider reach. 9.You will be giving the extra efforts, which all are needed in present competition, to develop your business and getting more volume of works. 10.You will be getting a professional who has expertise in his own field and can deliver you better output. There are many more reasons why you need to outsource your projects. Today time management is an important aspect of your business. There are many instance of SME’s growing to a large business houses simply multiplying there existing time. About the author: Arun Tibrewal [ www.arun.info] is an online marketing promotions specialist since 1998 and promoting KPO WEB [ www.kpoweb.com] A knowledge process outsourcing company. Permission is granted to reprint this article as long as the resource box should keep intact. http://www.kpoweb.com>>Outsourcing services http://www.arun.info>> Honest Online Marketing Guide

Do You Need Accounting Software For Your Small Business? by: Jakki Francis

If you’re anything like me then you dislike with a vengeance doing your accounts and taxes. So how can you make this process easier, less painful and cut your accountancy fees? Well buying an accounting software package is one way. First of all you need to decide whether you are going to keep your accounting records manually, that is using pen and paper, or whether you are going to computerize the process. If you decide that computerizing the process is the way to go then you need to decide whether to buy an accounting software package, for example Sage or Quicken, or whether a spreadsheet, such as Microsoft Excel will suit your needs better. As a general rule if you are a cash business that just needs to record income and expenditure then you are better off using a spreadsheet. So, should you choose an accounting software package? Yes if: ˇ You have customers to whom you extend credit and you buy goods in the same way ˇ You process in excess of 50 transactions per month ˇ Your business is an Incorporated Company (Limited Company in the UK) and ˇ You are computer literate or are willing to learn! Before choosing the accounting software, speak to your accountants – they will be familiar with the various accounting software packages on the market and will be able to advise you. Most accountants use software in their office to process the bookkeeping for their clients and will have a working knowledge of the accounting software package they use. It may be cheaper for you to use the same one they do, because they can advise you how to get it up and running and will be on hand to answer questions, plus at your financial year end when your accounts need preparing it will be less expensive, believe me to have a compatible program. I also recommend doing some research yourself, you may be able to obtain a demonstration disk or download of the most popular accounting software packages and this will give you an idea of how they work and if they are user-friendly. The cost may also be an issue, so you need to decide on your budget. But consider how your business is likely to expand - you may outgrow that budget accounting software quickly and end up buying the more expensive one anyway. Accounting software providers may also try and up-sell you a maintenance contract. Save your money! In my experience the established software providers will not have bugs in their systems. They will also try and upgrade you to the next version on a regular basis, but if the software is doing everything you need then there is no need to upgrade. Of course, you could also pay someone to do your accounts for you, either your accountant or a bookkeeper – the payoff being you don’t have to do it yourself and it frees you up to actually run your business! Copyright Š Jakki Francis,(UK), 2005 About the author: This article is copyrighted. Please feel free to use it in it's entirety including copyright information and information about the publisher. Jakki Francis operates the websitehttp://www.accountingsoftware-reviews.com

Company/Employee Handbook as Organisational Improvement Tool by: Stephan Szugat

by: Stephan Szugat

A business is only able to grow as fast as the internal organisation is able to process higher volumes of sales. But how to get an optimal internal organisation? Well, you will need to adapt your internal organisation over and over again. It’s a never ending story. However, a Company/Employee Handbook could assist you to achieve the best internal business organisation. This brings up the question, What has to be included in a Company/Employee Handbook? Everything what has influence to your business operation. First of all, it has to be outlined which areas the Company/Employee Handbook will cover. As it has to do with internal operation, here is a list of items you should include: - Company Background Information (Name-Development, Foundation date and place, History-Milestones, Vision) - Owner and/or Manager Bios/Profiles - Listing of Officers and Board of Directors - Employment Roles (Job Roles, Job Descriptions) - Description of the main products and services (just use your marketing material) - FAQ (about internal subjects only) - Company timeline (What, when, where) - Office procedures (Workflow-Information, Working Procedures) - List of persons to know (Bank Contact, Tax Advisor, Laywer, Main Suppliers, etc.) - Overview of agreements (Rental, Leasing, etc.) - Internal Policies (Dress code, Phone usage and answering, Voice Mail Procedure, Parking, Business Cards, Drug Policy, etc.). The above list shows which information should be included. The following list shows which departments should be included: - Distribution - Inventory/Warehouse - Marketing (How Follow-up’s are handled, Lead-Generation, etc.) - Customer Support - Research and Development - Accounting - Human Resources - Purchase/Procurement. The above two lists just show, how complex it could be to setup a Company/Employee Handbook. But it don’t have to be complex, just start partial. Only include the information which are already available and use the help of your employees. The benefits of having a Company Handbook are numerous, your employees will save time, it will be easier to improve procedures, because the procedures will be broken down into small sections of the whole precodures. Everything is clearly described, so nobody needs to ask over and over again. In case of holiday or illness of an employee, others could jump into the job, because they could be trained faster. As employer, you could hire employees with lower education. And your employees will love it, because they know where to look, when they have questions and they could improve their working environment as well. But the most advantage for the owner is, that the organisation will be able to work properly, when the business grows and when the owner might sell the business one day, it might get sold easier, because of the proper organisation. When installing a Company Handbook, you will find procedures you could automate. Automating the operation as much as possible will also be a big benefit, because employees and employer are able to focus their workforce on more important topics, such as improving the sales volume. Furthermore automatization will reduce to cost of operation as well. A Company/Employee Handbook is a bit like a Business Plan, but far more detailed, because it will contain information on every internal procedure. Only the financial part of the business plan will not be included, but if you like you might include some financial information you like to share with your employees. As you describe your procedures just do it as a numeration or listing. The description don’t have to be very well formed, it’s just important that everyone who will read it, is able to understand what has to be done. Remember, a Company Handbook is a living system, if you and your employees are not updating it regularly, it will be death one day, because it will only contain old stuff. So keep all people within your business engaged in improving the Company Handbook, because it will improve your business internal organisation as well. While starting to write the content of your Company Handbook, concentrate on job roles at first, afterwards write down job descriptions, in case a job role has been given to employees twice (Accounting Staff, etc.). Job Roles need to include the duties and the responsebilities of the described job. Job Roles, Job Descriptions and Workflow-Descriptions of sepcial procedures don’t have to be the same, but take care that the information is consistent, that means that it is written in a stream. This way the entire Company Handbook will be of benefit for everyone. When rereading something on your Company Handbook and you still have questions, than the entry is not finished. Last but not least, your Company/Employee Handbook should be available everytime. To do this, think about an Internet or Intranet Solution, depending on the size of your business. Keep it simple and slim, and you will have many benefits from it. Good Luck. About the author: Stephan Szugat is founder of abenetis a web-based service about Business Management Solutions. He has approx. 15 years experience in the Finance and Accounting Area from companies of different size and from various industries. http://www.abenetis.com

Choosing A Business Tax Service by: Don Kransteuber

There are a number of ways that you can find tax services companies. The yellow pages is a good place to start for companies in your area but, depending on where you live, the list of names may be extremely long. It is a good idea to ask your friends, colleagues and business partners to recommend the tax services that they have found helpful and efficient in the past. Then you can call the tax services professionals that you have on your list and discuss your requirements. The first step in finding the best tax services for your needs is deciding what level of help you require. Perhaps you simply need someone who can file a simple tax return but has to wade through your slightly disorganised accounting documents, or maybe you have a number of employees and need assistance sorting out their tax withholdings or you may even want all of these tax services, and more. The size of the tax services company may also be an issue. You may want one person to be able to perform all of your tax work, especially if you are only a small business owner or you may want a team of tax professionals and you want to find tax services that have a number of specialists available. Once you have identified the type of tax services then you can begin your search more easily. Your available tax services budget is obviously going to be an issue but you should try to allocate as much money as possible to ensure that you can afford the best possible tax services. Remember that you can incur heavy fines if you have incorrectly filed your tax return or are late paying any type of tax that your business is liable for. Apart from professional qualifications and references one of the most important points to consider when assessing which of the tax services companies you want to use is whether you feel comfortable with the person you are dealing with. At the end of the day you are going to trust them with your financial records and it is essential that you feel that you can depend upon the person. Every business, at some time, needs the help of some type of tax services at some stage. Large organisations usually have their own tax services department with accountants and tax lawyers but small companies often have to hire tax services on a regular basis to help keep their tax returns and other issues in order. It is important to know how to find the best tax services, no matter what type of business you are involved with. About the author: Learn more about Tax Software and gain access to a wide variety of resources athttp://www.alltaxsoftware.info.You'll find articles, resources and links to helpful sites.

Childcare Management & Daycare Software by: Jasmine Ong

ProCare Running a childcare facility can be an exhausting, 24/7 job. There are always kids to keep track of, records to update, fees to collect, bills to pay, reports to write, and so on. Often, your To-Do List seems both frighteningly endless and drearily cyclical. If you're not careful, trying to keep up with all your duties could wear you ragged. You also run the risk of spreading yourself too thin. And that could spell the difference between delivering quality and substandard childcare. Fortunately, Professional Solutions' ProCare software provides a way to streamline your operations. With this line of childcare management and daycare programs, you can quickly automate your facilities for maximum efficiency and minimum headaches. This means you can now instantly accomplish tasks that would otherwise take you minutes, hours or even days to complete. This also means that investing in the ProCare system can save you a fortune in wasted time, effort and money. It can very well be the soundest business decision you'll ever make. Automation allows ProCare to simplify many monotonous and mundane administrative chores for you. With just a few keystrokes and mouse clicks, it can help you organize customer information into easily retrievable records. It can also help you perform other time-consuming duties, such as scheduling, bookkeeping and generating reports, in practically no time at all. ProCare knows that the decision to automate your center is no small matter. This is why ProCare willingly provides you with a free software demo (available for request at http://procaresoftware.com/demo.shtml that will walk you through the system. This gives you a firsthand feel of the features and benefits without having to shell out any funds. ProCare is a completely customizable software package solution. With the comprehensive ProCare Family Data program at its very heart, managing child and family data becomes swift and simple. Other optional modules can be purchased as add-ons to this core software. Each module is intended to target a specific function, such as accounting or attendance tracking. While the Family Data software is a must-buy, you only pay for the add-ons that you want or require. ProCare can therefore be designed to meet the individual needs of most any preschool or daycare. It can even be designed to fit most any budget. A pool of well-trained and dedicated ProCare consultants are always on hand to help you pick out which features will work best for your particular center. Once you choose and install the ProCare package best suited for your needs, you're ready to hit the ground running. Its intuitive interface guarantees ease of use, with absolutely no learning curve necessary. Even computer novices will be able to successfully navigate through the application's user-friendly menus and functions. So from the moment you fire up your software, all you have to worry about is what you're going to do with all the time you'll save. For an entire decade now, ProCare's business solution expertise has given childcare professionals more time to focus on what really counts: nurturing and caring for kids. Isn't it time you automated your center the ProCare way too? For more information on Day Care Software, please visit http://www.softwareperfect.com/ About the author: Jasmine Ong is a staff writer for Software Perfect - a leading independent software review website.

Can You Play the Drums? by: Erin Banister

When I was a child, all I wanted from life was to be able to play every instrument under the sun. Pretty lofty goal, right? I spent a couple decades learning numerous instruments, a couple I mastered; with many of the instruments I considered myself an average player, but that was ok – at least I could do it! Years went by, I kept learning new instruments, and I was very proud of myself. One day, I decided it was time to learn the drums. I started with the snare drum, and I was fair at playing that. Next, the tri-toms, the bass drum, symbols, and so on. Being the overachiever that I am, I decided one day to get a drum set. I worked on it, day in and out, striving to make some sense out of this set of drums. I banged on them endlessly, struggling to find my beat – to make them all work together while in my hands. My father, being a kind soul, walked in on me playing my drum set and said, “You know, you look like a maniac flailing around over there.” Skip forward several years later. I still have that drum set (in my shed), and I still play it occasionally. No set of lessons, books, or study seems to teach my feet and hands to move as they should with the drums. My beats end up half-witted, and I’ve resigned myself to the fact that 1) I can’t do it all myself and 2) If I need a drummer, I might as well hire a professional. The moral of my story is, I know what I can and can’t achieve. The drums are not my ‘cup of tea’, but I know of several individuals who are very good at the drums. This is true in my business as well; while I can keep my books and do my personal taxes, when I put all of the accounting/bookkeeping together, I end up flailing like a maniac once again. Many business owners seem to be under the assumption that they can do it all, that they can be the catch-all support that their business needs. In my experience, this is only not true, but can also make your business look very unprofessional. Your ability to say, “I’m not a web designer” or “I’m not an accountant” or “I don’t know my head from a hole in the ground in regards to [fill in the blank]” will set your business apart from the crowd. I can give you a great for instance: I know next to nothing about real estate. I know it has something to do with houses, mortgages, listings, and showings; but what good does that do me? However, I know a friend of mine has ample experience in real estate, and this is her niche market. Thus, every inquiry I get about real estate I send to my friend. We all forget at one time or another that we can’t do everything, and take on projects we are blatantly not qualified for. It is imperative that we not only find our niche market, but also figure out what we cannot accomplish successfully, and pass it on to someone who does. I cannot play the drums, but I am a master at the flute and trombone. I cannot do bookkeeping/accounting, but am a whiz at marketing and design. How about you? About the author: Erin Banister is the president of TrinityJacobs – Your Personal Virtual Assistant. Erin’s expertise includes marketing and desktop publishing, amongst other administrative specialties. For more information, visit http://www.TrinityJacobs.com

Business laws basics by: Mansi gupta

A professional degree in Juris Doctor relates to a higher grade of studies in law. With business houses expanding in size and the legal issues gaining higher importance for day to day working of large corporates, demand for Juris Doctor professionals has been increasing. As the business interacts more with the society and their other counterparts need to resolve legal matters emerge simultaneously. All this has given an impetus to students aiming for career in law field. But a purely law background without any corporate experience may not be well accepted by business industry. Top ranked services in companies also demand a graduate in business organization along with lawyer’s degree. As demand for combined degree in JD and business is being a preferred combination to build a rewarding career in law. Business and law schools at various places have joined hands to impart students with best career courses. At many places Law Schools providing degrees of Juris Doctor and business school providing Master in business administration present a cooperative program for the convenience of aspiring students. This opportunity to avail concurrent degrees in both fields is a stepping-stone for success of students. Students who cannot travel to different places at the same time have a best prospect of finding excellent professional training under one roof. Surviving in the law field gets tougher from the day one tries to enter the school of law. Getting admission requires fulfilling entire formalities along with earlier creditable basic high school record, clearing the admission test for the law school and even recommendations from people. The same is applicable for business studies a student is required to prove his quantitative skills and efficiency in microcomputers to get admitted. A dedicated and hard work during the courses ensures students with excellent results which in turn to provide better career opportunities. A law person has various prospects for different types of career that he would like to accept. Depending on his caliber and willingness to work hard a lawyer can decide upon practicing law in an exclusive law firm or he may choose to be an in house lawyer. An exclusive law firm requires an extensive knowledge of one particular area in law where as an in house lawyer is required to deal with entire aspects of legal issues that relate to the particular company in which he is involved. While undergoing training in one of the law schools a student would learn about different aspects of law like civil law, criminal procedures, constitutional law, contracts, property, professional responsibility, basic federal income taxation, legislative and administrative interpretation and many others. The syllabus is cautiously devised to ensure that students receive exhaustive training to deal with maximum situation in the professional front. Similarly Masters Degree in Business administration imparts education in business for global society, corporate finance, managerial accounting, information resource management, strategic management, master’s project and other similar relevant courses. Anyone pursuing both law and business studies simultaneously has an advantage of studying some courses that are counted towards both degrees and hence a considerable amount of work is reduced for these students. About the author: Mansi gupta writes about business laws Learn more at http://www.jdforbusiness.com