Friday 10 February 2012

Few Small Tips to Boost Small Businesses

There is a vast difference in the operational style & strategy of a large enterprise or a corporate vis-a-vis a small scale business set-up.  The recession has made the situation so that every single penny is of supreme importance with these small scale businesses.  Thus in this light a budget sensitive strategy can really help in achieving entrepreneurial success and most importantly sustainability.

Thus, follow these ideas to maintain business proficiency:

• Act intelligent
Choose your expenditure intelligently. Devise a strategy, and spend accordingly. This will help you keep a tab on where the moolah is going! Going frugal for short while is better than going bankrupt suddenly.

• Save the publicity on the big banner
Big businesses have already made it big! They therefore, have separate budget set for investing on branding and brand visibility.  For big businesses extra advertisement is directly proportional to additional sales. Small business will always thrive if they make a sound brand visibility plan and get heard and seen at the right places. Leave the rest of the money with the production team.

• Low Cost Alternatives can really be economising 
Hang on to your money till the time you find a really promising alternative to invest your money in. If you found a really enthralling service for a high price, try creating an economising substitute for it, if possible.

• Alternatively, your own services & products should be pure brass
This is where money or an attempt to save it has no role to play. People will only purchase from you or become a regular client if the services, products and packages are utmost premium quality.

• Be everywhere on the internet
Be online at all the popular places and websites for excellent promotional occupancy. This will help you market yourself well without eating any extra money from your budget. Let your website be the virtual store, and your blog be the most significant critique for your brand. The rise in number of online shoppers will really help your brand attain top of the mind recall in most minds. Expand your reach to Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Plaxo, Yelp and other popular sites to build a community that promotes in leading business evangelists.

These are a few hints... Keep visiting this space for more hints, insights and clues next week.

Monday 23 January 2012

Need unrestricted cash flow for your small business? Say yes, to vendor credit lines...

Vendor credit lines are nothing but revolving credit accounts for the products or services that your business needs from a respective consumer. Usually, these vendor credit lines last for a term of 15, 30 or 60 days. Most prominent vendors in the United States are extending business credit for the retail or small business owners who use their products or services. The count of these vendor credit lines is rising daily and has already surpassed the 50,000 mark. These vendor credit lines do no seek any personal guarantee or collateral of sort. What is more, they also do not seek your previous payment history from these business credit reporting agencies. Thus, small businesses are constantly looking at them as excellent options that promise easy availability of raw material at the same time conserving cash for more important expenses.

Business credit reporting agencies also allow you grants without basing it on your personal credit scores. They usually do not levy any credit charges but they only seek business’s credit report for approval. These vendor credit lines are unsecured, thus you could get your required bit without any guarantee, personal security or collaterals. Some vendors will require a deposit and then float the balance for the agreed upon time period. Thus, seek a reliable vendor line to see your small business flourishing & yet conserving cash at hand during critical times!

For More Info visit us at : www.FundFactor.com

Wednesday 11 January 2012

Caution: Simple ain’t Stupid!

Here we are with simple tricks to maximize your business plan’s efficacy. But the biggest word of advice has already gotten around in the title of our blog this time, keep it simple! That is what you ought to do if you want people to invest in your idea: write a business plan and keep it simple. With a straightforward wording & formatting, a business plan will be really lucrative.

• Keep it short

Cover all that you can in 20 pages of text. So choose your words wisely and keep the information crisp, adding other documents and evidences at the back of the BP. The one-page Oprah plan might make a good executive summary, but it’s not enough to get the investment.

• Fine polish attracts

Thus, polish the overall look for that holistic feel. Work on the physical look of the text too, to make it more appealing. Use a brilliant and legible font i.e. Verdana, trebuchet, Tahoma etc. Remember, most of the investors will skim through it while multi-tasking.

• Forget Jargons

Avoid buzzwords, jargon and acronyms, for not everyone knows the full form for these slangs.

• Straightforward Language

Long complicated sentences only ruin the game. It is best to keep the text short and brief to ensure quick comprehension. Also, write most of the content in bullet points, but avoid cryptic pointers. Flesh them out with brief explanations where explanations are needed.

• Don’t Overwhelm the Graphics

It is best to strike a fine balance of graphics & text. For pictures and diagrams can effectively illustrate a point, too many illustrations however come across as clutter.

Few other things like white space management, using page-breakups judiciously, performing spell-checks and proofreads will enhance the quality of a business proposal. It will also get you the desired moolah to optimize the business opportunity! Investors neither appreciate entrepreneurs who envision a great business opportunity, but don’t have any written business plan, nor do they think highly of entrepreneurs who present long product specifications with a few financials at the end. Both of these are failing strategies. A simple, readable and intelligent business strategy can easily sell even the most complex proposal, for a business plan that is easily understood and looks professional is already half sold. Simple is not stupid.

For More Info visit us at : www.FundFactor.com