Business Operating Cost & Cashflow - How To Manage Business Operating Capital

Operating expenses are those costs every business has that are not considered directly related to a company's first line of business. Operating costs include sales and marketing, research and development (R&D), and administrative costs.

Investors want to make sure management is doing the best job it can keeping these costs in control. Operating expenses are available on the financial statements that every publicly traded company files with the SEC.

Management also must do a good job turning a profit with its own operations. That means the costs associated with cost of goods sold (COGS), etc. must generate more than those costs. If not, well, the company must be in the wrong line of business. Companies should never be operating at a loss. If a company is operating at a loss exactly why needs to be interpreted by the prospective investor

Operating margins represent the direct relationship between sales revenue and operating income. The operating margin of a firm is the operating income divided by net sales. It shows how much gross profit a company generates before taxes.

Well-managed companies should increase these margins from year to year. The higher these margins are the more profits are available to return to shareholders investing in the company. Operating margins can be a useful tool when comparing two prospective stocks that compete within the same market.

Higher operating margins represent a company in a better position to generate income. For example, a company with a lower operating margin than a competitor in its market will have less flexibility in determining prices. It's competitor with higher profit margins will know this about it's competitor and can "go for the jugular" by slashing prices and stealing market share.

Advantages of Using SugarCRM Software in Managing Business Data

It is often seen that many organizations face difficulty in man`ging the records of their business clients as well as customers and hence, lag behind to operate their business processes in an organized manner. If you are running an organization and are looking for solutions to systematize your business processes with minimal effort, then choosing SugarCRM software to manage your data will help you to accelerate your business potential.

SugarCRM is open source Customer Relationship Management software which enables an enterprise to meet all the CRM needs for better functioning of the business. It is a software solution designed to manage and monitor customer information, sales leads, clients' requests and lots more associated with the sales and marketing department within an organization. It is available in both free and commercial editions. Unlike the free version, the commercial version provides additional functionalities, such as integration with Microsoft Outlook, multiple deployment options, offline client synchronization etc and stands ideal for organizations dealing with large number of clients.

Let's take a look at the following advantages of using SugarCRM software and update your business with powerful customer relationship management system:

* Sales team can update information about number of leads received, marketing campaign, meeting, sales opportunity, contact details etc into the system, quickly and easily. * Authorized users can access the system from anywhere and at anytime, which supports Java-enabled web browser. * Helps to collaborate with sales team and customers for effective business functioning. * Allows creation of multiple accounts for multiple numbers of clients within a common platform. * Enables management team in guiding sales team with new business opportunities. * Allows customization of dashboard as per the specific requirement of the organization. * Provides real-time views of sales leads and multiple marketing campaigns and helps to make on-time managerial decisions.

After having brief idea about SugarCRM software, if you want to implement it into your marketing practices, then consider taking support from a skilled SugarCRM developer. A few certified software development companies are known to offer customized software solution at affordable prices. They are known to provide dedicated SugarCRM development team, who are able to provide on-time services to their clients. You can consider outsourcing CRM projects to those companies that can provide quality software solutions within your limited time and budget.

SugarCRM software is simply a great way to run businesses in an organized manner. Contact experienced developers to get CRM software development services for your enterprise.

How IMB Manager Software Can Help You In Managing Business Mails

Do you often have to send business mails to your customers/clients? Then investing in high quality Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMB) management software can definitely help you. Apart from ensuring that your business mails are protected from mail fraud, using an IMB code in each of your mails will also increase credibilhty of your business to your customers.

However, when you set out to invest in IMB management software, you are likely to be overwhelmed due to the huge number of choices available in the market. Here are some pointers that should help you to make the right decision:

1.Look for software tools that can automatically create the three types of Intelligent Mail Serial Numbers (i.e., Barcode ID, Service Type ID, and Mailer ID), all of which should always be unique in nature. The database where these codes will be stored should be automatically created by the software. Also, every unique serial number only stays valid up to 45 days from the date of creation. The software should track that too, and automatically archive expired codes in a separate database, so that those do not get assigned to any new mails.

2.It is quite likely that you would be dealing with multiple mail IDs, created in accordance with the different aspects of your business. For instance, you may be using separate mail IDs for sending promotional material and for delivering products to customers. For this reason, the software should be able to manage multiple mail IDs, and generate unique codes for each of those IDs, as and when required.

3.The user interface needs to be easy to work with, even for employees who are lacking in technical expertise. The data fields should have self-explanatory names that are understandable even for laymen. It is even better if the interface is accessible from remote locations via internet. That way, your employees will be able to work from anywhere, as long as they have access to a working computer and an internet connection.

4.The software should be able to save and print reports about mail IDs that have been created and archived. This will give you another way of archiving used codes and also help in preparing reports quickly.

Always carry out some research before investing in IMB management software. You are likely to come across good quality software applications that way. For starters, check out the IMB manager manufactured by Anchor Software. Your search for the perfect IMB management software is bound to end right there.

Managing Business Teamwork

When building teams within a company, you need to build them appropriately with the right team members. It is important to consider personalities, skills, and productivity when forming teams. Training should be provided by the manager on systematic methods so the team has the ability to focus on the project and know how to work together well. This will allow the group to work together to solve real issues in the workplace and improve business processes.

Departmental meetings need to be held so the progress of a project can be reviewed. The manager has a responsibility with business teamwork to determine if the group has a healthy relationship or if not everyone is getting along. Meetings will give the manager an opportunity to recognize progress and if the team is working well together. If there are personality issues or conflicts, they can be resolved quickly or teams can be reorganized. Meetings allow a manager to help the team approach issues for the project.

Building fun with business teamwork is important, especially if the group is working on a difficult project that requires some serious brainwork. People tend to get frustrated on big projects. Create a fun environment so all of the people feel involved and appreciated by management and their team members. This might include a company luncheon, a business trip, or even a team retreat at a ski resort.

Icebreakers are a great way to get employees started for the day in a business teamwork environment. Icebreakers are helpful at the beginning of meetings, in the mornings, and group activities. Icebreakers create a personal relationship with management and they promote interaction among team members. This allows people to get to know each other personally and employees enjoy it.

Success should be celebrated. Business teamwork requires recognition of an accomplished project or employees will not feel appreciated. It is always best to provide constructive group praise and not just individual praise. Don't recognize the project manager alone but the entire team as a whole for a project well done. When everyone feels they are an important factor in the success of a project, they will be motivated to work on the next one.

Hard Work is Bad Management - Business, Relationship, Self

Hard Work is Bad Management Article 6.

Hard work is bad management not only relates to business. It is totally true in relationship and self health. If it's hard work, meaning stressful, long hours, not enjoyable, tiring or boring, then it's time for change. Big change. Because bad management destroys things.

3 keys to Good management in Business

1. Nature never destroys things she simply builds a new one on top greater in consciousness (smarter and simpler) and less in number (meaning faster and smaller) Good business growth comes from evolving what you have to what you vision. Big leaps of marketing and brand are high risk and big gambling.

2. Honesty will become a fashion. The future brands will be real. Real is the future. Fluff and lies will not create great sustainable business. Careers based on you doing what you are good at are far more powerful than careers based on you doing what you would love to do. Business must be transparent.

3. The business who helps its clients get more done in less time will be the business who wins. More learning faster, more housework faster, more health in less time, more peace of mind in less time. All products that are in growth phases on earth right now are products that help people get more of something in less time.

3 keys to Good management in Relationship

1. What you appreciate grows. If you appreciate your lover, they appreciate you. If you remind them of what they need to fix, what they did wrong and what they can be better at, you'll loose your relationship. There are two sides to everyone. If you are smart, you'll acknowledge the two and focus on the positive. If you are an emotional fruit cake you'll try to turn them into an all positive, all nice, all peaceful lover. and then they'll leave because you only loved half of them.

2. People become as you treat them. If you treat your lover as someone you don't like or don't trust, you can be guaranteed you'll create your fear. If you treat your children or lover as a peaceful, anger free, highly spiritual person they will become deceitful, because you are treating them deceitfully.

3. Love is cumulative. Love builds action by action. You can run around telling the world how much you love somebody, but it is your actions in their perception that causes them to feel loved. Love is cumulative and so is the breakdown of a relationship. It takes 100 positive acts to overcome one negative. Because people react more strongly to negative acts, the energy of a negative act is multiplied by 100 by the ego of the average lover. So, remember to act with love allot. Meaning kindness, gentleness, care and consideration.

Cont'd over

3 Keys to Good self management

1. Be yourself - be real. Stop trying to be someone else. Stop trying to change yourself. Stop trying to grow yourself. You are perfect and blessed as you are. Just be real. Who else can you be? All philosophies, religions, spiritual traditions and self help programs are flawed. They sell half people who can't exist, and have never existed. So by trying to become a good Yogi, or a good Buddhist or Good Christian, you'll spend the whole of your life disappointed in yourself.

2. Develop realistic expectations. Some people go up with the wind and down with the tides. They are on an emotional roller coaster because they are addicted to an expectation that one day, their difficulties will be over. We never grow from pain. No - we simply get used to it. An athlete never grows from pain, they just learn to tolerate more of it. A Speaker never grows out of stress, they simply get used to it. Nothing really changes. There is nothing to change. It's beautiful. Just like it is. We just need time to get used to it. There is no where to run, or grow to. It's a myth.

3. Treat others as you wish to be treated. Self obsession is bad management. People who are not busy enough, people who are trying to become something, people who think there is something important about themselves, self obsess. They are hypersensitive and the end result of all their self development is greater hypersentiveness. Measure your "goodness" by how you treat others. Not who you think you can become. You can't change. It just adds a lie to your reality. You are worthy of love as you are. And the first person who need to know it, in order to get someone else to acknowledge and value it, is? Yes, you.

Live with Spirit

Start and Succeed in Your Home Based Property Management Business!

If you know something about residential or commercial maintenance, and you're looking for something that's a combination of working in a home office and hands on work, then a property management service might be just the home based business for you to start. 

A property management service is one of the most lucrative businesses to start, whether you choose to work from home, or set up in a traditional office.  For the purposes of this article, however, we'll focus on the home based property management service, and how you can get started right away.

Check your local and state regulatory agencies to make certain that the business you start will stay within the confines of the law.  More than likely, this will require a business license, tax identification number, etc., however, in some localities, you will need to be careful about the actual services that you offer, as these services may even require a real estate license. 

Research the local market to determine if there is a need for the services that you're planning to offer, and if so, how much competition you'll face as a new business owner. 

Make a highly detailed list of what services you will offer.  No generalized list.  Break it down into as much detail as possible.  Include inspections, cleaning, tenant issues, maintenance, landscaping, etc., in your list. 

Decide what you will charge for each type of property and for the different levels of service you will offer.  For example, if you will regularly manage the entire property, then you'll want to consider charging a fixed rate for certain services.  If you will only manage certain aspects of the property, then you may charge a different rate, or you may choose to charge for each service you perform.  Make sure that you factor the size and type of property that you will manage into your pricing.

Plan and begin marketing your new business. The best way to reach absentee owners is through the use of the internet, but consider other ways to market your business, such as placing ads in your local newspaper under the services section. 

Gather the tools that you will need to perform each of the services you intend to offer, and have them available (in your trunk, pickup, etc.) when you meet with prospective clients.  Not only will this provide the appearance that you're already managing other properties, but it lends credibility to your claims that you will do an excellent job with their property.

As you begin to get responses to your marketing efforts, you will typically meet the owners at their property to discuss the services that you have to offer, and why they should allow you to manage their property versus the current arrangements that they have in place. Even if you have to negotiate a bit to land your first customer, do so!  Remember, word of mouth is your best advertisement, and your first customer will most likely be your best reference, and may help you land your next customer...and your next...and so on! 

Mental Aspects of Managing Business Stress

Stress is a bummer: not good for one's health, not good for relating and communicating, definitely not good for business managers and those whose work they manage. Other features of stress include worry, anxiety, high blood pressure, being uneasy and very hard to live with. The business manager is well advised to learn effective ways of preventing stress and managing stress that cannot be prevented. Managers of small work forces will find this to be a critical factor in employee retention. The one-person business manager will find stress management to be of enormous benefit for maintaining sanity as well as balancing home life with business endeavors.

Here is a list of what to do, not necessarily complete but more than enough.

Out of sight, out of mind.

When you are not working, quit thinking about it. Learn how to close down the workday when it is over. Put everything away, finish the filing, close the drawers, lock the security files, make notes about what to remember. When you leave the work area make sure your mind is also closed to the business. Do not take work out of the office unless there is an emergency requiring after-hours attention away from the office.

Leave work behind when you vacation.

That includes wekend getaways, days off, trips with the family, vacations, holidays and afternoons off. Enjoy your time off and make sure your employees enjoy their time off: no phoning in for messages no being called, no laptop computers so you can work while you aren't working. Get a lilfe that is not business and enjoy it.

Don't be thinking about work when you are trying to get to sleep.

That is called worry and it is a very big "no-no" in the world of stress management. If thoughts about the business break through when you are trying to sleep, get out of bed, go out of the bedroom, have a good worry to get it out of your system and then go back to bed.

What happens at work stays at work.

Don't be talking shop when you aren't at the shop! Get a life and live it when you aren't at work.

Worry on purpose on a set schedule and when you are finished let it be.

This is called detachment. What will happen will happen. Worrying about it won't change anything. Ask yourself what would happen to the business if you died. If the business would die with you, it is time to arrange for succession because you are going to die sooner or later. If the business is organized to survive your death or retirement, use that fact as reason enough to quit treating the business as though it were life and death.

Find a trusted person who is knowledgeable about business and talk out your concerns and problems on a regular basis.

If you are lucky the person will be a partner or business associate. Think about using a business coach. Perhaps your spouse fits the bill if talking about the business concerns is something your spouse wishes to do and can handle. Perhaps there is a friend. If you cannot think of anybody with whom to talk you do have something to worry about!

Confer often with your Board.

If you do not have a working Board, take steps to develop one. Your Board helps with the shaping of policy and will be of enormous assistance if you choose directors who know the business and believe in what you are doing.

There is more to preventing and managing the stress of work than only these mental steps. Proper exercise, proper rest, proper sleep and good nutrition are also essential. For example, drinking soda pop and eating candy will not relieve work stress, it will only make you fat and hyperactive or drowsy. And mental discipline is wasted if you operate on habitual sleep deprivation. Fatigue is an open invitation to stress.

Conversely, all the aerobic exercise, sleep and good nutritional meals will not help against stress if you approach your business responsibilities with sloppy mental habits. Staying on top of the business you manage demands good mental discipline right along with good habits that foster health and relaxation.

It is truly tragic to waste a good mind. Stress will do that to the undisciplined manager. Since your mind is the only one you have, better to take care of it by developing good routines to prevent and counter stress.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Can You Manage Business Online?

Many people dream of having a home based business online. That is certainly a worthwhile goal. The question is: Can you manage an online business? This is an important question. Managing your business from home on the internet is more detailed than managing a shop in the mall or down the street. We can be fooled by advertising hype and the fact that so many people manage an online business quite successfully. They are the people we hear about.

We don't hear about the online business that fail because the people managing them are not business oriented to begin with. They are probably great at something else;a niche they have not yet discovered in themselves. They may not know the great talent others see in them. So the question is: can you manage a business online?

If you have a strong desire to succeed with an online business you will probably be able to overcome many shortcomings and setbacks. If you bounce out of bed and begin your home business as you would an away from home business, you are on the right track. I have yet to meet someone who worked their way to success dressed in pajamas. You have to be disciplined and be a person who takes action in their own personal life. Working on line with a business of your own will stretch your mind and spirit. You will be happy-beyond the money you will earn-that you did undertake the challenge of working from home online. Another gift from technology.

An orderly home based office goes hand in hand with managing a great online business. It is not necessary to be super organized,indeed that could get in your way. It is important to keep your work space free of clutter. Some people can't keep any space clutter free. If this is you, think long and deep before you attempt to set up a home based online business.

Setting up a budget, staying within it, having credit and keeping account, paying bills on time, are all vital to the success of a home based,or any business. We don't always see what we buy or spend for our business on the internet so it imperative that we follow the money. The manager is responsible for everything required from a business online. A good business manager cannot afford to procrastinate. slack off when work needs immediate attention, or sidestep problems that must be addressed.

Success online with a home based business is there for disciplined managers who are patient, willing to put in the time- maybe even a few years- before they see the results of their hard work. It helps too to help others along their path to success with a home based business. A generous heart is always full.

Above all, the customer must be respected and be given fair value for their hard earned money. Whether a product,information,a business opportunity,or settling a bill,respect is the word. Again, with a business online it is easy to overlook the most important person in our index. A good manager will make sure the online customer is always treated fairly. A respectful attitude will keep your customers coming back.

Managing a successful online business is very rewarding and achievable both from a personal and financial standpoint. So if you believe in you own ability to be successful online, don't hesitate. Start now on a great journey.

Hard Work Is Bad Management - Business and Personal

Jenny woke tired. Her business was growing and the hours she was putting in demanded more and more of her time. She raised her head from the pillow, stumbled out of her now empty bed, and went to the kitchen. Still half asleep she put the kettle on for her morning cuppa and slowly walked to the bathroom. There on the floor were yesterdays clothes. She'd barely had the energy to slip from her work gear and climb into the bath to sip her chardonnay before bed, let alone pack her clothes away tidily.

She sighed at the sight of the untidy bathroom, but with her head swimming already, she just resigned herself to clean it all up on Saturday when she could sleep in. After her tea, Jenny dressed, put on her gym shoes, leashed the dog and stepped out into the day for her morning walk. She loved the fresh air.

Two hours later she was behind the desk, facing the usual barrage of emails, meetings, conference calls and fires to be put out. Jenny was successful. Profitable, creative and in love with her job. But something was wrong. Jenny was single and didn't want it that way.

Hard work is bad management. When our identity becomes so linked to our work, we work harder thinking that we are being a better person. We link the time spent, the challenges faced, the hurdles overcome to the goodness of who we are. And here begins a problem. Hard work is bad management. Actually, the smarter we are, the less hard we work.

Having our identity tied up with hardship is very normal in our western culture. The privilege seems to be that those who are highly admired, have overcome obstacles, whereas those who have been blessed with seemly comfortable existences are termed lucky or blessed. They are not given such high accolade as the battler who overcomes adversity.

But adversity in itself is often the consequence of bad management. Few people acknowledge that failed relationships, business hardships or failed health are actually caused by bad management. Bad management of anything is most often the cause of the adversity we are so often given the accolade for overcoming. We usually cause our own hardship.

Trekking in Nepal I share allot of time with a Tibetan Doctor and often do the rounds with him to local villages. He provides his services free and we sponsor him by paying for some the medicines for those who can't afford it. His patients often complain about sore this and sore that and hope he has bought with him a miracle. But his medicine is based on fixing the cause. The patient thinks there is a solution to a problem without dealing with the cause. And they are very disappointed when they are directed to the cause, like acidic eating alcohol, too much rice or something they think is a "normal" behavior.

It is the same here in Jenny's life. The cause of her ever increasing tiredness, her increasing demands at work and her singledom is bad management. Not a growing business.

Growth of anything should stimulate growth in technique. Small business requires management of certain quality. Large business requires management of a higher quality. What keeps small business small, is bad management. If you apply small business management to a large business it becomes small again.

In relationship, it is the same. New, small and simple relationships are like small business. It is obvious what is necessary to make the relationship work. Lots of cuddles, kisses and sleepy time. But this is not the key to managing larger relationships (ones that last a long time).

Relationships that are small thrive on emotion, ambition, sexuality and happiness. Big relationships thrive on those things and much, much more. Do you know what those other things are? It is like asking a small business owner about the keys to making a larger business successful. Often they will say "more of the same" in other words "do what you do in small business more" but this is completely a disaster. Then, the only way to grow a business is to work harder, do more of what you did yesterday. And this is the opposite to the truth.

To make a small business bigger, you have to work less. To make a small relationship bigger you have to do less. The bigger something becomes the more efficient the time you spend in or working on it must be spent.

So here are a few clues to the difference between big business management and small business management. See if you can translate them to your relationship.

1. Big business demands a bigger perspective of the business's role in the market place.

2. Big business needs more regular and automated monitoring

3. Big business means less distractions, less emotion, more focus.

4. Big business means visionary leadership

5. Big business means more done in less time. (otherwise costs go up as production goes up)

6. Big business means the delegation and sub contracting of repetitive tasks to experts.

7. Big business means higher qualified people.

8. Big business means more investment in systems to automate repetitive tasks

9. Big business means more analysis before expenditure.

10. Big business needs more level headed longer term planning.

Enjoy the day

Start a Supply Chain Management Business

The internet has given the ability for entrepreneurs to take a shot at selling online. You have marketplaces like Amazon and eBay that have allowed startup business to soar to new heights online. As these businesses grow they may begin to look for ways simplify their shipping and fulfillment processes. Starting a chain management business can offer these online businesses effective ways to save money and time.

You can start small. It can be as simple as acquiring a small warehouse, order processing, and shipping software. You can store a clients products and ship as orders are placed. Business love the idea of supply chain management because it relieves them of fulfillment responsibilities and allows them to focus on other aspects of their business.

As you acquire more clients and your business grows you can add conveyor control to speed up the fulfillment processes. You can find specialized companies that can engineer effective solutions for material handling. You can have a conveyor system that is customized to meet the size of your business.

Ideally, you will eventually have a custom shipping program created to meet the needs of your various clients. Creating an open ended program will allow you to make additions as needed.

Finding a warehouse is typically very easy to find and inexpensive. You will want to consider your growth goals and acquire the right size space accordingly. Keep in mind your lease agreement and try and work out an agreement in case you need a larger space in the future.

Starting a new business can be exciting but you will want to explore all your options and study the market before making any decisions.

Tips For Starting an Event Management Business

Staring an event management business is all about creativity, decision making, and organizational talent. This kind of work is more than what the terminology defines; it even has the way across the stretched boundaries of the work perimeter. This is because creativity and imagination has no boundaries at all.

If you have the talent and a creative mind, then you can successfully get over this business with just a few tips and ideas. Following are some of the effective tips to help you start your event management business:

• Learn well about the profession and about the market. This is a vast business that requires lots of learning and understanding. You can read books, magazines, and online articles to know as much as you can about the profession. • Analyze the market and discover what the clients in this market need. Synchronize your interpersonal skills, organizational talents, resourcefulness, and creative ability to get the best out of you so that you can deliver the best. • It's advisable to attain a degree in event management as it will help you to have a better understanding of the related markets and industries. There are many industries including hotel, tourism, hospitality, human resources, food, and marketing closely linked to the profession. • You can have a better hold by gaining some experience with an event management company. For one year or two you can do a job in some good company and once you feel you are ready to kick start your own, quit the job. This will help you better learn the market and know the clients as well. • Self-employment is not an easy task as you have to face various challenges in the field. In the job you just have to accomplish your assigned responsibilities but in your own business you have to take care of the financial matters, legal issues, and other documentary work as well. So, be well prepared for all the challenges. • You also have to face a tough competition with companies who have already made their mark in the industry. Discover those companies and learn about their key points. • Market your business through newspaper, media, and personal contacts. A strong networking is really beneficial in such a case. • Search for clients that hold the power to bring you success. Target groups and companies where there are higher chances of events and shows. Most of these companies sign a contract and you have to be smart enough and impressive to grab their attention. • Last but not the least; you should always be clear about the objective, purpose, theme, and scope of the event. This will give you a fairer idea and picture of how to plan the event.

Managing a Commercial Property Management Business? Software Can Help

Wouldn't it be great if you could run your commercial property management business efficiently instead of spending most of your time filing and doing paperwork? Well, it can be done if you invest in the right software. Software can be customised to this specific business and covers every aspect of the day-to-day practises of the business.

With customised commercial property management software you can automate such tasks as rent invoices, letters to tenants, collections, and more. You can create your own databases based on your companies own portfolio and gear them toward your own properties and business needs.

Keep control over your portfolio with detailed information about each and every property your company owns all in one location on your computer. Keep track of vendors, transactions, tenants, repairs, income and debits without getting out a single piece of paper or opening one file cabinet door.

Property management software can also include fully integrated accounting features as well. These features allow commercial property managers to keep track of several properties at one time. Users can create accounts, keep track of bank statements, reconcile accounts, make payments to vendors and more. You can set the payment program up to be almost completely automated if you choose.

With the right software solution, there is no more need for spending hours creating monthly reports when you purchase commercial property management software. The can program contain user friendly reports that are completely customisable for your business and will generate several types of monthly reports whenever you need them, within minutes.

It can be confusing having to keep track of different types of commercial properties such as office buildings, apartments and multiple occupancy properties. Each different type of property has different rules and regulations that must be kept track of and they all have special needs. With the right software, users can input and access the information for each type of property owned. From there, they are able to generate accounts payable information, accounts receivables or several other detailed reports on each building or property.

No longer does a property manager have to be tied to their desk. They can be free to search for new properties to invest in and properly care for the properties that they already own. There's also a better element of work - life balance and a potential for reduced office staffing requirements. The investment in commercial property management software will most likely pay for itself in just months of use.

Crowd-Funded, Crowd-Managed Businesses - The New Way to Start and Manage a Business?

You know you can start a business alone or with a few friends. However, to start a business with a crowd? Is it possible? Is it rewarding?

With the advent of the internet and web 2.0 technologies, large group of people can connect with each other and leverage on large scale collaboration to achieve collective goals. Crowdsourcing and crowdfunding are popular terms that are coined in accordance to this phenomenon. The power of the crowds has successfully shaped Wikipedia the free online encyclopedia, innoCentive which crowdsources research and development for biomedical and pharmaceutical companies, Amazon Mechanical Turk which enables employers to distribute minute tasks to thousands of registered workers, MyFootballClub which facilitate members to vote on the composition of a soccer team and various other collaborative projects springing across the internet.

Starting and managing a business is often difficult and challenging, most new ventures fail before generating enough revenues to stay afloat. Can the power of the crowds work magic in this instance? If we were to ask a large group of people to take up the difficult and challenging task of starting and managing a business over the internet, can these people turn the business into a profitable venture? Let us discuss the benefits and drawbacks of such a business model.

To start a business, having adequate funding is important. Most businesses fail because of insufficient operating funds. It is important to take into consideration that many businesses take a year or two to generate profits. A significant advantage of a crowd-funded, crowd-managed enterprise is that a huge amount of startup capital can be raise in a short amount of time. If 10,000 people can start a business together and contribute $100, the startup can successfully raise $1 million dollars. Having a huge startup capital does not guarantee success. However, it does allow these aspiring entrepreneurs to enter into high-yielding ventures that are generally monopolized by rich, high net-worth individuals and institutions.

In all large scale collaborative projects that operate over the internet, a proper structure is needed to distribute requests and manage completed tasks from the community. Do existing Web 2.0 Technologies capable of superseding traditional collaboration in managing a business?

In traditional business collaboration, relaying of information within an organization is done mainly through face-to-face communication, group meetings, documentation of reports, emails, presentations, etc. In most large scale collaboration, information is relayed through web-based communication. A crowd-managed business, unlike traditional business, encourage large group of people to decide on business matters, thus effective communication is extremely important. The only way for a large group of people from all over the world to communicate efficiently is through web-based communication supported by Web 2.0 technologies.

Online social networking involves connecting and sharing information with other like-minded people via the Web. Current online social networking collaborative tools have proved to be capable of superseding traditional business collaboration. A business networking platform with social networking capabilities can effectively facilitate the collaboration between owners and staffs. Decision-making is another key component of business collaboration. It is a logistic nightmare to get 10,000 people to attend daily business meetings. Internet poll and forums can be use in place of business meeting to make collective business decisions. The need of physical presence to monitor business activities can be substituted with daily updates from a reliable operation team through blogs and twitters (a form of micro-blogging). With the advent of web-based collaboration, it is easier than ever to co-manage a business with a large group of people over the internet.

Common drawbacks of large scale collaboration projects are the lack of monetary motivation, lack of participants, global language barriers and the difficulty managing a large scale crowdsourced project. A crowd-funded, crowd-managed business model must be able to motivate participants through various incentives and has a proper system to manage large scale collaboration project.

Billions of individuals can stay connected through the internet and actively participate in wealth creation, innovation and social development in ways previously unimagined. When these large groups of web-enabled communities collaborate and strive towards a collective goal, the chance of success is tremendously increased.

Internal Control System - Structured Way to Manage Business

In the past Internal Control was part of the functions of Internal Audit and Accounting Managers. Today, CEO and Financial controllers have to confirm that the appropriate internal control is in place. In the beginning of this millennium corporate business world witnessed multi-million business scandals from big houses like Enron, Andersen, Quest, Tyco, Global Crossing. Since then the need of proper internal control framework for pubic limited companies is increased. When corporate houses are growing faster, with huge operation across globe, demands the need of robust control system in place to promote ethical business practice. .Managing business process with internal control mechanism helps in brings improvement in process and facilitate for quicker response time. Internal control software from Oracle, SAP and many other players are gaining importance. Post Sarbanes-Oxley act, in US there is a huge demand for these applications.

Many authors and authorities have defined internal control in their own way. One of the widely accepted meaning of internal control is, according to The committee of Sponsoring Organisations of Tradeway Commission(Popularly known as COSO), Internal control is one of the main tool to curb the risks associated with unwanted business acts. Internal control is broadly defined as a process, effected by an entity's board of directors, management and other personnel, designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the achievement of objectives in the following categories:

o Effectiveness and efficiency of operations.

o Reliability of financial reporting.

o Compliance with applicable laws and regulations.

According to Turnbull, An effective internal control must in include the policies, processes, tasks behaviours and other aspects of a company that taken together to facilitate efficient operation, ensure the quality of internal and external reporting, Safeguarding the assets from inappropriate use, ensure compliance with law and regulation. Thus, internal control should be embedded with company's policy and it should form a part of culture. To implement responsive internal control environment following points need to be considered.

1) Senior Management must accept higher degree of responsibility for internal control

2) Proper Delegation of power should be defined.

3) Clear training program on monitoring internal control system

4) Periodic review of internal control system and taking necessary action to avoid system deficiencies

5) Proper alert mechanism to tackle exceptional business processes.

Responsive internal control system helps in achieving business objective, increased market capitalization, effective utilization of corporate resources, fewer unforeseen threats associated with fraud, and effective management of change. But on the flip side, excessive internal control system may forced to increased bureaucracy, complexity, cycle time and no value addition in processes. This may result in reduced productivity. But to avoid the risks such fraud, public scandal, poor business direction, noncompliance with community standard existence of structured internal control system is necessary. In order to accomplish balance between risks and control, Internal control system should be proactive, value added, cost effective and addresses exposure to risk but it should not seen as burden on processes and it should aim at minimizing potential losses arising out of unwanted events.

Mitusbishi Coporation has build a effective internal control system to ensure business activities are conducted properly and conformity with laws and its Articles of incorporation. President defines basic management polices and sets of management goals. At the same time, he formulates the management plans and regularly follows up on progress in achieving target efficiently. Organization chain of command is clearly defined and delegation of authority is properly planned to accomplish targets. These staff must submit reports regularly. To incorporate statutory compliance requirement. Mitsubishi Corporation has established a cross organizational framework headed by Chief Compliance Officer. It also established a alert system, which tracks major non compliance activities in business process. To handle risk associated with business processes, MC has designated categories of risk and established sections responsible for each category. This resulted in law complied financial reporting and carrying out proper business in Group in Management,

Internal Control System Frameworks

COSO Framework

Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission(COSO) is a US based organization of private sector corporate groups and established in 1985. Its major objective is to identify the factors that cause fraudulent financial reporting and make necessary recommendation to reduce its incidence. American Institute of Certified Public Accountant(AICPA), American Accounting Association(AAA), Financial Executives Institute(FEI), The Institute of Internal Auditors(IIA) and The Institute of Management Accountant(IMA) collectively formed and funded the COSO.

According to COSO Control Environment, Risk assessment, Control Activities Information and Communication, and Monitor are the five interrelated components for an effective internal control system.

Control Environment: Control Environment is a foundation of COSO framework. It includes the integrity, ethical values and competence of the entity's people; management's philosophy and operating style; the way management assigns authority and responsibility, and organizes and develops its people; and the attention and direction provided by the board of directors

Risk assessment: Every entity faces a variety of risks from external and internal sources that must be assessed. A precondition to risk assessment is establishment of objectives and thus risk assessment is the identification and analysis of relevant risks to achievement of assigned objectives. Risk assessment is a prerequisite for determining how the risks should be managed.

Control activities: Control activities are the policies and procedures that help ensure management directives are carried out. They help ensure that necessary actions are taken to address risks to achievement of the entity's objectives. Control activities occur throughout the organization, at all levels and in all functions. They include a range of activities as diverse as approvals, authorizations, verifications, reconciliations, reviews of operating performance, security of assets and segregation of duties.

Information and communication: Information systems play a key role in internal control systems as they produce reports, including operational, financial and compliance-related information, that make it possible to run and control the business. In a broader sense, effective communication must ensure information flows down, across and up the organization. Effective communication should also be ensured with external parties, such as customers, suppliers, regulators and shareholders.

Monitoring: Internal control systems need to be monitored--a process that assesses the quality of the system's performance over time. This is accomplished through ongoing monitoring activities or separate evaluations. Internal control deficiencies detected through these monitoring activities should be reported upstream and corrective actions should be taken to ensure continuous improvement of the system.

COBIT Framework

The Control Objectives for Information and related Technology (COBIT) laid down the set of generally accepted guidelines for measures, indicators, processes and best practices to assist managers, auditors, and IT users for developing IT governance and Control in a company with which benefit of Information Technology can be maximized. COBIT framework is designed by Information Systems Audit and Control Association(ICASA), and the IT Governance Institute(ITGI) in 1992.

COBIT 4.1 has 34 high level processes that cover 210 control objectives categorized in four domains: Planning and Organization, Acquisition and Implementation, Delivery and Support, and Monitoring and Evaluation.

The Planning and Organization domain covers the use of information & technology and how best it can be used in a company to help achieve the company's goals and objectives. It also highlights the organizational and infrastructural form IT is to take in order to achieve the optimal results and to generate the most benefits from the use of IT.

The Acquire and Implement domain covers identifying IT requirements, acquiring the technology, and implementing it within the company's current business processes. This domain also addresses the development of a maintenance plan that a company should adopt in order to prolong the life of an IT system and its components.

The Delivery and Support domain focuses on the delivery aspects of the information technology. It covers areas such as the execution of the applications within the IT system and its results, as well as, the support processes that enable the effective and efficient execution of these IT systems. These support processes include security issues and training.

The Monitoring and Evaluation domain deals with a company's strategy in assessing the needs of the company and whether or not the current IT system still meets the objectives for which it was designed and the controls necessary to comply with regulatory requirements. Monitoring also covers the issue of an independent assessment of the effectiveness of IT system in its ability to meet business objectives and the company's control processes by internal and external auditors.

The following table lists the high level control objectives for the COBIT structure

Sarbanes-Oxley act (SOX)

After the massive fraudulent financial reporting by publicly listed companies, American constitution enacted the SOX Act on July 30, 2002. Key focus objective of the act is to provide confidence and trust to investors and public in the Post Enron era. Act laid out the specific corporate responsibility for financial reporting, internal controls and audit committee standards. It also established criminal penalties for non compliance.

Section 302 requires the CEO and CFO on a quarterly basis to sign off on financial statement fairness and internal control effectiveness. They also must report any significant changes in internal controls since their last evaluation.

Section 404 requires a separate management report on internal control effectiveness and audit by the organization's external financial statement auditor. It becomes effective for most large companies for their entire reporting year ending December 31, 2004 and has a 12/31/2005 effective date for other companies.

Section 906 is related to Sections 302 and 404, and requires that CEOs and CFOs ensure all financial reporting (including annual and periodic reports) fairly presents, in all material respects, the financial condition and results of operations of the issuer. It also provides for significant criminal penalties for non-compliance.

Section 201 prohibits a registered public accounting firm from performing both audit and non-audit services.

Section 301 requires an audit committee to establish "whistleblower" procedures to allow the confidential and anonymous submission of concerns regarding questionable accounting or auditing matters.

Section 409 requires disclosure to the public on a rapid and current basis additional information concerning material changes in the financial condition or operations of the issuer (Form 8-K).

SOX recommended both COSO or COBIT framework for effective internal control in business. COBIT is also a COSO compliant and acceptable IT framework. COSO's target audience is management at large, COBIT intended for management, users and IT auditors. Both COSO and COBIT view control as an entity-wide process, but COBIT specifically focuses on IT control. A sound system of internal control therefore provides reasonable, but not absolute, assurance that a company will not be hindered in achieving its business objectives, or in the orderly and legitimate conduct of its business, by circumstances which may reasonably be foreseen. Thus, Internal Control should be the part of organizational DNA.

References:

1) http://www.coso.org 2) [http://www.sarbanes-oxley.com/] 3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarbanes-Oxley_Act 4) http://www.isaca.org 5) Annual Report 2006, Mitsubishi Corporation.

What Business Are You Really In? The Energy Management Business

Ever get a great idea, and then you are flying high with inspiration and possibilities? You outline your idea, you mind map it, you buy books on the subject, you easily draft up copy for an email campaign... you take a few steps, and then you share it with a few people close to you and... Bam! You hear "How will you do that?" "I don't get it..." "Someone else I know has done something similar..."

Next thing you know, your inspired actions have turned to staring at the computer and aimlessly reading tweets.

Then your own psyche joins in the game and pipes up. "You've never done anything like that. What makes you think you can do it? Last time you tried a campaign, you didn't get very many people signing up. Your message isn't clear enough. Your list isn't big enough..." Not enough, not enough, not enough... You've popped out of the flow.

Hmm... time to go get a snack from the kitchen (I never realized my love for poptarts!). I MUST wash all the towels in the house (it must be done NOW). Or I've just got to clean out that silverware drawer (where did all these crumbs come from?).

All this talk - the inner and the outer chatter - slam us to a halt because it's colluding with our deep inner beliefs, those repetitive thoughts that have dug such a groove inside of us that they drive the train, and we may not even realize it.

Stopping this chatter, shifting our thoughts, and creating new beliefs are what our work as an entrepreneur, as the owner of our business, is really about. When we can do that consciously and consistently, then we can DO anything in our business!

The first step is always awareness.

You have to be aware of the chatter that is self-limiting and pulls you down. The easiest way to create awareness is by paying attention to the signals your body gives you such as: o tightening shoulders, throat, stomach, heart area o clenched teeth and/or jaw o headache o upset stomach o fuzzy brain (that's what I call it when you start feeling confused on a subject that you did have clarity about two seconds ago)

The feelings that go with those body symptoms are: o irritability o frustration o confusion o feeling of yearning o anger o sadness o depression

These are signs you need to: 1. Let go 2. Shift 3. Choose life-enhancing thoughts again

It's hard to choose a new thought in the moment of these intense, constricted feelings which I call the "grip."

First you need to let go and shift.

Let go by: o drinking water o breathing o listening to a meditation CD or meditating with another method o going for a walk o working out o consciously choosing to do a new activity like sort the laundry or clean the silverware drawer

Once you shift the "grip," then you can think a little clearer and choose to shift your thoughts to ones that are more life-enhancing. (More on that in a future article.) For starters, practice noticing the signs in your body of being "in the flow" or being "out of the flow." Then choose to shift.

How to Successfully Manage Business Process for Small Business

In today's business environment business owners and staff need to be out on the ground selling and providing their services or products to clients, there is often a bit of a conflict of interests for business owners because as the old saying goes "businesses do not run themselves". That is true but what is the solution for the small business where every pair of hands in needed at the front end to ensure the business is carrying out its prime function. Small and medium sized businesses cannot always afford to employ staff in the back office on non income producing activities. Is the answer outsourcing? Perhaps, but outsourcing can prove expensive and the loss of control does not always sit well with proprietors.

Front Office Software Software is one way of dealing with this conundrum as it provides complete control to the business whilst automating many of the processes of both front and back office freeing up staff for primary functions. The downside to software is the learning curve to be able to use it to its full potential and of course the expense of maintaining it. In addition the diverse range of tasks involved often need several software programs to complete, increasing not only the cost but the time taken to train and learn and operate several different software products.

Integrated Software Suites In an attempt to make things more plausible for small businesses many companies developed integrated suites of software which helped to some degree as the learning curve was reduced and many programs behaved in the same way, much like Microsoft Office (TM) each separate piece of software looked and felt the same with only the actual output differing. These are useful for small businesses but lack in many ways as they just didn't come up to the standard needed and it was difficult for software to apply to different industries, for instance a medical sales company would need completely different functions in their programs than a recruitment company.

Industry Specific Software The situation is now that many industry sectors do indeed have their own dedicated software platforms, you can buy dedicated recruitment agency software if you are a recruitment agency and there exists not quite so dedicated staffing software solutions for human resource departments of larger corporations. Unfortunately that does not really help the small business unless they are a recruitment agency or need some recruiting doing for them.

Effectively this leaves the option of having a back office & front office software solution or outsourcing the functions or having the expense of an in house member of staff or team to do it. Each business will have to find their own solution that fits best with their situation, for some software will provide what they need and for others it will be outsourcing or internal staff, whatever is chosen these activities are required to keep a company operating and in profit and should be ignored to your own detriment.

How to Manage Busy Mornings

Most parents are extremely busy in the mornings. It seems that there is always no time to do work in the early hours of morning. Though time can be saved by several techniques and also much more work can be done with good time management.

For example; by doing work at night parents can save lots of time in the morning. They can make lunch and they can clean the dishes, set out clothes and also they can collect books. But children should perform their duties as well and should be prepared to go school.

Parents can use healthy breakfast food which takes no time to serve. In that they may include cold cereal which is fortified with vitamins and minerals. For balanced and easy serving diet they can use yogurt and they can also use fruits. With help of this they can save plenty of time in morning.

One of the good ways to save time in the morning is to switch off the TV. This can be help a lot in saving the time. Otherwise the children will be late from school if they keep watching TV.

Parents have the option to either allow their children to watch TV or not. Depending upon the time left for school and if their children are fully prepared and done with breakfast then they can be allowed but parents should on reminding them about school.

It is also important to make thing organized to save time and to get control. One good option is to keep each Child's things at separate places in the house and they should know where they will find them.

You can place their keys and ID in baskets and can hang their clothes on hooks and tell them their specific ones.

Lastly parents need to be relaxed as it is important, few deep breaths in morning can be helpful to get energy and to become fresh.

How to Get the Most Out of Your Business and Manage Business Stress

Setting up their own business is the ultimate goal for many people. The idea of working for yourself often seems like an exciting notion, being able to utilise lots of ideas and turn them into reality.

The truth often entails working longer and longer hours with little time for breaks. Just keeping the whole operation ticking over can be a struggle. And yet few people would go back to working for someone else after they have been their own boss. Let us look at a formula for success, to turn your business into a successful, viable company.

- Tell people what to do. Your staff are not psychic. They need clarity, guidance and education. These three things motivate staff because they feel that they have support and interest from management. They feel that you are with them.

- Sell with energy and belief. Every business is about selling, whether it be goods or services. Money has to change hands in order to cover your overheads and then make enough profit to make it all worthwhile. Being enthusiastic about your products and enthusing your staff is the key to business success. Sales is the creative side of the business, so hire good, dynamic staff and work to enhance their levels of motivation.

- Choose good sales staff. Staff are the backbone of the organisation. They are the human face of your company. Paying them well is important as is paying staff well enough to entice good staff from other companies. The result is you invest in your business in order to increase your profitability.

- Winning over good sales staff from your business rivals benefits you by weakening the strength of your competitors. Also good sales staff often find that their customers move with them as they value the relationship that they have with their sales consultant. A good sales representative understands that sales is about repeating a process over and over. Customers return for a good product. It is about keeping the market with you by providing good service and reliability.

- Good sales figure are also about providing honest, quality advice. A good friend who always, every year, came top of sales in her company had no qualms about telling customers not to buy something if she felt that it had no relevance to them. Her customers valued her advice, trusted her and she could on occasion, simply phone them up, recommend something and they would place significant orders on her say so.

- Marketing and Advertising matters because it keeps your brand alive in peoples minds. It reminds people that you are a strong presence in your field and can also be used to introduce new ideas, innovations and products as well as keeping your regular product and contact details visible.

- Be prepared to invest in your business. As you grow sometimes investment is required to sustain and enable bigger orders to be undertaken. It can be a risk, but in order to grow sometimes increased funding is required.

- Have a plan. Have a vision of where you want to go. Decide if you are working towards an exit strategy. Is your goal to retire, sell the business or become a back seat member of the board? Decide if you need to tailor your business to work towards that goal. Might it be worth thinking about turning it into a franchise opportunity for people to invest in? Setting up a good business model with a business plan and support in place could provide a lucrative on-going income for you in the future.

- Tailor you business plan with a future sale in mind at some point. Is it worth thinking about buying out your competition to strengthen your market position and make your business a more attractive proposition to a potential purchaser? Could you be looking to become that strong that you build an empire and look to float it ultimately?

By utilising good business support you can take control of your choices and work towards your end goal, your exit strategy. This enables you to move at your own time and pace, to achieve what is right for you.

Managing Business Expense Reports With Microsoft Excel

Keeping track of your business receipts should be mandatory and not optional. Your employee should understand the importance of this and realize how this may impact the accuracy of their report if the receipts are not present. Lost receipts can be retrieved by contacting the vendor to get a copy. The employee should realize that this is their responsibility especially if they expect reimbursement for those types of expenses.

Your standardized business expense report should have different areas to account for your employee expenses. There should be an area of general ledger accounts numbers, general ledger account names, date and location of expenses, and if necessary mileage calculations. This information will greatly assist your accounting team when they reconcile the expenses!

Lastly, your business expense reports should be submitted on a set timed schedule. It should be encouraged to submit them weekly or monthly. This should be mandatory and not optional. The goal is to reconcile for expenses in a timely manner so they company can see where their funds are being spent and if they are being used responsibly. To get employees on board with this, try incentive based rewards in the first few months to get them used the new timed schedule.

Excel templates are an excellent tool to use when you are standardizing your business expense report. Most companies already have Office or a similar product loaded on their company computers so using templates can assist in this standardization process. Below is an example of an excel business expense report. This expense report contains a sheet that allows you enter up to 30 general ledger accounts names and numbers. It also contains a weekly business expense report area that allows you to select the appropriate general ledger account and detail the expense prior to printing.

Managing Business Change

Change is inevitable. Change is like a rest. Every business must undergo change from time to time in order to remain effective and profitable. However not all changes are useful to the organization. The fact is that whether change is positive or negative, it must be managed. This is because every business needs time to successfully undergo change. Please understand that your business, whether online or any other must experience some degree of change in your endeavor to accumulate wealth. Any business that remains static for a long time may be the most unprofitable and I would simply request you to quit and forget. Change comes in terms of marketing strategies, business ideas, employees, investment options and business portfolio.

What matters a lot is not the kind of change but how you manage it. Change that is expected has lower effects than the unexpected. This means that you should be ready always and expects anything. Put on the required shock absorbers to avoid being over terrified in the occurrence of an event. Employees will always look up on the top leadership to see their reaction to any change.

Changing customer needs requires that you also change your approach to business which may include change in provision of products and services. There is a rapid growth of technology. Your business should be in the front line in enjoying such services. Realize that a new profitable strategy earns the business a lot of profits before other businesses adopt the same. Always have the principle of earning as much as possible today, tomorrow you will do something else. Remember that your business exists to make profits. Nothing else.

Managing Business Risk

When you start your own business, you know you're taking a risk. Perhaps you're leaving the security of the corporate or public service world with its set benefits like vacation days, sick days, and health insurance. And of course there's the predictability of the check at the end of every pay period. It's not exciting, but it is secure and something you can count on.

All that goes out the window when you're your own boss. Of course there's going to be risk, but a smart person works to minimize that risk as much as possible. You certainly want to maximize success and minimize risk, and that's very possible if you take the right steps.

Risk management is a science in itself, and you should learn everything you can as your business is getting off the ground. First of all, make sure whatever good or service you're offering is of the highest quality. Quality control techniques will ensure that you're selling something that people will keep coming back for.

It's also good to think about selling something or some service that people in your target market actually need. That means they have to buy it somewhere and all you have to do is convince them to buy it from you. When you sell something that people merely want, you first have to convince them that this want is a legitimate one and that they would do well to budget it in.

Needs must be satisfied, so there's less risk involved in this type of business. To manage your risk, you must keep your present customers happy and be able to generate a continuous stream of potential ones who turn into new buyers. That means marketing campaigns and lots of advertising.

Yes, you can use the tried and true methods of putting ads in newspapers, handing out business cards, hanging up flyers, doing cold calling to try and generate interest, and many more techniques such as these. Just make sure you're not spending too much time and money for too little return. In the twenty-first century, the internet is where advertising is best done.

You can make use of search engine prioritization once you have a website so that people are brought to your site when they do a search for what you sell. You can set it up so that you reach the maximum target market with the least amount of money and effort. Of course there'll always be risk when it comes to being self-employed.

You have to put out money to make money. But you should make that output as little as possible in the beginning. Work from home if you can and don't start with too much inventory or overhead costs. You want to reduce your possibility of failure as much as you can.

Cross your "t's" and dot your "i's" so every part of your business is legitimate and in order. Be organized and you'll be less likely to let things get away from you. You're going to learn a lot about yourself as your go after your dream, so sit back and enjoy the ride.

Ways to Advertise Your Property Management Business

Advertising any kind of business can be done in many ways. You can start by obtaining a list of some property owners, real estate agents and builders through your Chamber of Commerce, and National Association Home Builders. This list can help you in process of advertising your business more easily. Here are some of the ways to do to introduce your company to all proprietors including your prospect clients on your list.

Creating a website to advertise your business will make it searchable and accessible to property owners looking forward for these kinds of services. The profile of your company in your website must appear convincing and reliable to the searcher. You should make your company's competencies visible by highlighting your experience and credentials, adding information about other professionals or officers working in your company, and stress the benefits provided by your company that makes it more competent than other companies. Include the achievements of your company with supporting testimonials or statements from your previous and current clients. You may also use pay-per click ads at Google.com to advertise you website.

You can also do the promotion through your business-to-business Yellow Pages directory where it can be easy for the real estate agents and property owners to see your company. To make this advertisement more effectively, run your business-to-business advertisements in both print and online.

Aside from business-to-business ads, you may request for mailing lists of real estate builders and owners from trade association like the Nation Association of Realtors and the Property Management Association. To obtain the lists you want, select the areas or zip codes and then send out postcards to the companies you had chosen. Most probably, the real estate agents and owners have been talking to several companies that deal with administration and they would immediately return calls from your postcards.

Major trade publications can also be your means of advertising. You can post classified ads introducing your business where the real estate agents and property owners can read and reach your company the time they will need the services. Magazines such as "Commercial Property News," "Real Estate Forum" or "Apartment Finance Today" is also a way for advertisement. In your classified ads, you should always include website address to obtain responses immediately.

Sending brochures containing the advertisement of your company to your prospective clients is also another option. You may set up a booth during trade shows. With that, you will have the opportunity to negotiate and issue brochures and business cards to random people and receive calls and queries eventually.

3 Kinds Of Reasons To Do Fire Risk Management - Business Fire Safety Training

Fire risk management is often considered the best starting point when trying to prevent fires. There are several reasons for carrying out fire risk management and some of the reasons can be categorized in the following 3 ways:

Moral

Moral considerations rhould be the prime reason for managing risk. Persons should not be exposed to intolerable risk while resorting to premises or in the employ of others. A moral code exists in most countries; therefore we expect employers or other responsible persons to treat the health and safety of occupiers of the premises as being of greater importance than financial profit.

Moral considerations are based on the concept of the 'Responsible Person' owing a duty of reasonable care to relevant 'Persons'. A person does not expect to risk life or serious injury as a condition of resorting to a premises or whilst in employment.

Economic/Financial

Where a business is unfortunate enough to suffer a fire, there is a very strong possibility that it may never resume. Even a small fire can cause severe disruption. Apart from the physical and costly effects of smoke and heat, fire may also cause costly and lengthy interference to services such as electrical, telecommunications, heating etc. leading to a temporary shutdown of the facility and an immediate loss in revenue.

When a business is part of a supply chain, the loss of that particular business can have a knock on effect on other businesses reliant on the supply of products, leading to a wide spread financial loss. Even if a business is brought back into operation, it is quite conceivable that customers have moved their buying power to other suppliers. Unless the down time caused by a fire is minimal, skilled staff are quite likely to move to new positions elsewhere therefore leading to a skills\shortage on re-start.

The loss of a major employer can have a detrimental financial impact on the local community. The impact on an individual will be devastating, however the knock on effect caused by the loss of the individuals spending power will also affect other local businesses and services that in turn may have to downsize or could close altogether. This can lead to an economic downward spiral plunging an area in to social deprivation. In certain circumstances, the stigma associated with a fire ravaged premises can mean that it never fully recovers even after being rebuilt. There could be a strong negative effect on revenue when prospective clients would learn about a previous fire in a care home for example.

When a building suffers from a fire, it is almost guaranteed that insurance companies will increase insurance premiums and any excess on the policy. Additional safeguards will also be expected to avoid repetition.

Social

When an establishment provides a unique or vital service, the loss of that provision can have a severe detrimental effect on the local community or in some cases a much wider area. The disruption caused to the public or service continuity when a hospital or a school is closed down for a few weeks can have severe consequences on the society's health and wellbeing, both physical and mental stress. These events can lead to a lack of confidence in the society's ability to manage itself, which would also have a negative effect on the society's economic climate if people become more reluctant to use the services provided locally and travel elsewhere to fulfill their needs.

Make Your Real Property Management Business Stand Out

Get ahead in promotion. It is by getting the newest form of advertising that your business can top the competition in its form. Keep posted with the day-to-day updates in technology to ensure your business' standing in the competition. Once you maintain a high standard of advertising, you will get more customers to stick with you and become a hard-to-beat real estate agent.

As the world goes around, the need of people for new discoveries increases especially in the business sector. In the world of business, competition among different markets is unstoppable. Each business never stops improving and developing ways to get more people into their business. Thus, it is of high importance to get to know all these things that concern your real estate property management.

Be knowledgeable with the use of internet. It is a new medium of communication that seems to almost top everything these days and most of the transactions are being held through this.

Consider using internet for the promotion of your business. So here is how you are going to start. Create your own website and post there your properties. There are more audiences in the internet who would view your website compared to the land-based businesses. It is the best way of showcasing what you have. Because internet provides faster access, your business will be able to reach more people. It can reach as many people as it can in a short period of time.

Join social networking sites. Did you know that the population of the famous social network, which is Facebook, is similar to a country? But when joining social networking sites, do not forget to post your contact information in social networking sites such as Facebook and twitter, so people can easily reach you. As well, post articles on your website that will give ideas to your costumers on how to deal with your business. Post pictures of your properties to give them a clearer perception of your business.

Add more flavor to your internet advertising. Aside from posting photos, you can also upload videos. You should know that video presentations' capability to persuade is twice more powerful than of the images. Share your video on YouTube and link it to your website for more public consumption. An example of a video that you can embed in your website is a video of a tour around each of your property. Or it could also be a video on how to prevent failure in buying a new house to tell people how dedicated you are in rendering your services for all their needs.

For more emphasis, use graphics software as well to help you present your properties and services to the mass. If you do not know how to use this software, you can hire a company that works on animation to do it for your business. But you could save money if you learn how to use this software by yourself.

Advertisement plays a big role in running a business so never let yours to be left out from advertising techniques. Keep updated of the new means of advertising and make your business even more successful than before.

Managing Business Risk Through Business Transaction Management

Business risk comes in many forms, but one of the most costly involves transaction delays. When a B2B firm handles orders worth millions, orders that run slowly or are lost have the potential in any economy to put pressure on a business' solvency. This is why business transaction management or more precisely monitoring (BTM) is such an important component of any business risk management plan.

What is business transaction monitoring? Business transaction monitoring, referred to by the Gartner Group in their APM Magic Quadrant as transaction profiling, is the dimension of application performance management (APM) that focuses on the two types of transactions common in business-IT transactions and business transactions. Business transactions are comprised of a series of IT transactions.

How do typical business transactions work? The transaction might be an order update. For that update to execute correctly, the update order must occur in a specific sequence across many Java,.NET, and database applications. As the update order interacts with each IT entity, the required function at that endpoint must execute correctly.

These transactions execute in micro-seconds, so detection of any breaks in proper transaction flow would be impossible to detect in the early stages without software that has the power to track these transactions. In order for business transaction monitoring to be truly useful, it must also give business the ability to evaluate business transaction performance (BTP).

BTP, then, tells you what happened through transactional monitoring, how the observed performance compared to expectations described in a Service Level Agreement (SLA), and why it happened through operational monitoring. It takes all three pieces of information to reduce business risk.

Business transaction performance monitoring provides early warning. The sooner a business has actionable information that detects a potential problem in its transaction flows, the more likely that business will be able to deal with the problem before it begins to impact their customer. When a problem arises in an IT transaction flow, the IT department has the diagnostics already in hand to address the issue promptly and efficiently.

The reason the diagnostics are already in hand is that business transaction monitoring is a proactive technology. Rather than waiting until problems blow up, The complex event processing (CEP) engine scans all transactions for patterns that could indicate that a "business abnormal" situation is developing. This saves a business considerable stealth waste, because many of the inefficient transactions that are overlooked without a business transaction performance monitor, become consistently addressable. Processes that are often considered impossible to address because they aren't visible can be resolved because BTM provides the necessary visibility.

Business transaction monitoring conserves resources. While it is commonly believed that a shortage of resources such as too little network bandwidth, a lack of memory, slow and/or undersized disk, or inadequate CPU are the cause of transaction problems, BTM reveals another story. Rather many transaction failure to execute correctly are due to a logic error or similar "normal accident". These errors can occur after a data-cleansing event for example. The transaction follows a pathway that dead-ends. Mission critical applications may fail.

The value of using business transaction monitoring (BTM) is that these dead-ends are caught before the help desk is flooded with angry customers asking, "Where is my order?" There is no question that an angry customer will expend more energy tarnishing a company's business reputation that a happy one will expend in trying to help a company get more business. With BTM in place, a business lowers its risk proactively.

A business that isn't transitioning immediately from one crisis to the next will find employees more productive and customer confidence enhanced. These two factors alone will help conserve company resources. Preventing crisis events will also conserve resources by minimizing overtime costs to repair a problem that has "blown up." Business transaction monitoring for performance of each customer and in-house transactions is a sound investment that will pay for itself in the savings generated each year.

The right BTM software provides both financial and manufacturing businesses with the information needed to remain competitive within the marketplace as well as compliant to Government regulations for these industries. Learn how business transaction performance software could help your business perform better in any economy. Nastel Technologies, Inc. has prepared a white paper on this subject, BTP: Proactive Prevention & Visibility, which will help you make an informed decision about the value of adding this software solution to your business IT applications.

Competition Can Help an Owner-Managed Business

The owner-manager of a business may not readily recognize the benefits of having competition. Many owner-managers would say they want no competition at all. In the economy of the United States, and in most free market economies, a market with perceptible demand will be served by more than one business. Given that competition is inevitable, it is helpful to understand how to benefit from competition. Generally, the benefits of competition are in market analysis, employee acquisition, and sale of the business.

The function of a business is to meet the needs of its customers or clients. The critical question for every business is: what does the customer or client want? If the consumer is asked directly, the information derived is likely to be inaccurate. The actions of consumers provide more reliable information than their words. From the perspective of understanding the market for your business product or service, ask: why does my competitor have customers or clients? In other words, why have my competitors' customers or clients made the decision not to be consumers of my business? Gathering this information involves data about consumers who decided not to buy your product. This information can be difficult to obtain but the effort will be worthwhile. This inquiry will lead to an examination of the competing products or services and an analysis of the consumer decision. For example, if your product or service is better, than the consumer is not receiving enough information from your business before the buying decision is made. If the competing product is of inferior quality but is sold at a lower price, this is valuable information about the elasticity of demand for the product or service. This information will help you make better decisions about the nature of your product or service and how it is marketed.

Training an employee is a significant cost to a business. Attracting new ideas and learning different methods of conducting the business is extremely valuable to the business. Sometimes competing businesses can cooperate, often through trade associations, in the education and training of employees. From time to time, the opportunity to assimilate new ideas and methods can come from hiring a former employee of a competitor. Often, the former employee will not be fully aware of the value of the employee's experience to a competing business. It can be very advantageous to the business for the owner-manager to be aware of the employment activity of a competitor.

In a situation where there is a need to find a buyer for your business, the first choice is frequently a competitor. From the competitor's point of view, it is easier to expand market share by buying the customers than by convincing customers to change their buying habits. From the business owners' point of view, a competitor is already aware of the value of the business and is interested in the business. If there is already a relationship in place, it is easier to approach a competitor about a sale. In some situations, competitors have been able to enter into agreements providing for purchase and sale of competing businesses given certain owner events such as death or disability.

Competition need not be fierce. Competitors can benefit by sharing information and cooperating on educating the marketplace. Where a market is defined into categories, one business may be the acknowledged provider in one category, while another business may be the acknowledged provider in another category. Many times there are ways competitors may benefit through cooperation in raw material supply, marketing efforts, and training. For example, restaurants have discovered that having more than one restaurant in an area benefits all the restaurants located in the area.

Owner-managers of businesses can benefit by analyzing events at competing businesses and communicating with the owner-managers of those businesses. The result of such attention can result in benefits for market analysis, employee acquisition, and opportunities for the sale of the business.

Managing Business Expenditures and Avoiding Unauthorized Expenditures

Effectively managing the financial health of a business is one of the most important tasks for a small business owner/manager. All activities of the business affect, for good or bad, the financial health of the business and the financial management of that business affects all other business activities. Without adequate financial resources - you are OUT OF BUSINESS!

In addition, responsible and disciplined financial management can protect the small business or LLC from attacks as well as attacks against the personal assets of the owners by outside interests, shareholders, and others with an economic interest. One of the best defenses against attacks on the business is to have a proper business structure, including a strong financial position.

Responsible and disciplined financial management requires a good working knowledge of financial statements, especially the cash flow statement, as well as the cash cycle of the individual business. While many small business owners are never going to become experts in this discipline, all should gain a good knowledge of the company finances and then in cooperation with a good CPA effective financial management is relatively straightforward.

All financial management begins with a carefully prepared, well supported, operating budget. In the case of a start-up business a start-up budget will precede the operating budget but both are required. Thereafter, a management control system must be instituted to oversee the financial activities of the business and see that the budget is followed.

One of the issues business owners experience, and one that can lead to claims that can pierce the corporate veil, is that of unauthorized expenditures. What this means is expenditures that are unnecessary for, and outside of the, normal business operations. This issue is closely related to co-mingling of funds but extends beyond that issue.

The issue of unauthorized expenditures can be an challenge for businesses of all sizes but can pose a particular problem for small businesses and LLC's that have only one owner or very few owners and no employees. In the case of a single member business, where is the oversight and control to come from? First and foremost the protection must come from the owner(s) having a high level of commitment and discipline to the proper financial management of the business. Thereafter, working closely with a good CPA can assist in providing additional and valuable oversight.

The question the single owner business must ask is "Do I really want to expose all of my personal assets to risk because of lack of business discipline"?

If there is more than one owner and employees are involved, all, especially the owners, have a responsibility to see that the small business or LLC is being managed in a manner to ensure success and protect against unnecessary liability.

Some Easy Steps For Managing Business Finances

Managing business finances is the thing that is not easy to be done but you have a capability to do it if you want to try. If you are able to organize the finances in your business, it will give a great result for you. Also, you will have a business that could give many benefits for you.

This article will explain some easy steps that you need to do if you would like to organize your business finances. This article is useful not only for the entrepreneur but also for people who want to start their business. Knowing this information will help you to get enough knowledge to determine the best thing for your business.

Keeping your bills in one place is the first thing that you need to do. If you keep them in one place, you will not get any difficulty to find them. In addition, keeping them will help you to know how much the cost that you spend in a month and what kind of expenses you need. If you have many bills, you need to keep them in a place which is larger.

Accustoming yourself to pay the bills on a schedule is also another thing that you need to perform. If you pay the bills after getting them, you do not need to spend your time for checking them so you use the time for doing something useful for your business. Also, paying the bills on a schedule will avoid you to get fine so you do not need to pay more for them.

Looks Like the US Government Just Got Into the Wealth Management Business

Everyone needs to know a little bit about retirement savings and anyone who has ever made a good chunk of money has to be very careful with that money and hire wealth management advisor. Unfortunately, now these wealth management advisors have a little competition; it's called the United States government.

Yes, that's right the United States government has got into the wealth management business. In fact, they are going to help you manage your wealth by taking it from you and redistributing some of it to those that they feel are in the most need. For instance, those who have never worked an honest day in their lives, who have never paid taxes or are quite lazy and don't feel much like working.

After all, that's what a socialist government does, as it tries to level the playing field for all citizens by taxing the rich and redistributing to the masses. Some say this is fair for all concerned because it takes away the wealthy class and makes everyone equal. However when everyone is equal those that produce the most simply stop producing and you don't have to read an Ayn Rand's novel to know that.

Not only is the US government getting into the wealth management business it is also getting into the banking sector, the automotive business, the mortgage business, and your business. Americans have recently elected Barack Obama as President of the United States of America, a nation that is clearly the greatest nation ever created in the history of mankind with the most wealth.

Not only does the United States government give away money to the poor nations of the world, now the US government will take your money and give it to everyone who thinks they are poor, who doesn't want to work or who has their hand out. Redistribution of wealth almost sounds like Robin Hood but, did you know that Robin Hood steals [operative word] from the rich and gives to the poor?

That might sound good if you are poor, but it gives you no incentive to get rich if the government is just going to take it away from you. If there is no incentive to produce or be productive then obviously there will be fewer productive people.

The flaws of socialism are well known, there's no secret to it. There have been many nations that have come and gone using such an approach. Even in our own lifetimes we see Germany and France deficit spending and may actually cause the collapse of the European Union.

France's unemployment rate currently is at 17%, while people in the United States complain that unemployment is at 6.5% up from 4.5%. By the way for 4.5% unemployment rate is one of the lowest in the world.

Dear US citizen, Be careful what you wish for! Sincerely,

Lance.

Stress Testing the Owner-Managed Business

Conducting a thorough stress test on an owner-managed business will determine strategic planning deficiencies and enable the success of the business. A stress test for a cardiac patient consists of monitoring the patient on a treadmill to see how well the heart reacts when placed under the stress of sustained exercise. A stress test for a structure involves placing it under a higher than expected load to see if it is as strong as engineering predicts. Financial regulators place banks under stress tests by using sophisticated software models that allow the testing of certain stresses alone and in combination with other events to see if banks have sufficient capital. These testing procedures consist of the initial inquiry, the application of the stress situation or situations, and an analysis of the performance under stress. It is not necessary to construct a complicated piece of equipment or a sophisticated computer model to accomplish a stress test on an owner-managed business.

The inquiry is to ask "What if...?" The application is to follow through the consequences of the event. If a probable event could occur in the marketplace, the application of the inquiry would be to forecast the business experience in the year after the event occurred. If the occurrence of the event will cause the business to lose money without recovery, the application of the inquiry causes the business to fail the stress test. If a business has three owners, the inquiry could be "What would the business experience in the year after the death of one of the owners?" Depending on the role of each in the business, the application of the inquiry would have a different result depending on which owner died. Would it make a difference if a certain owner quit owning because of disability instead of death? Most definitely, for example, if the buy-sell agreement is funded with life insurance, in the case of disability there would be no immediate funding from a life insurance policy. Would it make a difference if the owner left the business? Most definitely, for example, if the owner left to compete with the business and reduced the foreseeable revenue for the business. Would the application of the inquiry cause the business to fail the stress test under any of these inquiries?

While a computer model is not needed, there must be a way to project the economic activity of the business. Generally this can be the profit and loss format of the business accounting on a spreadsheet showing month-to-month performance for a year and allowing for adjustments. With some businesses it may be more meaningful to use a cash-flow format rather than a strict profit and loss format.

Where a probable event in the market will cause the business to lose money without recovery such that the application of the inquiry causes the business fails the test, the analysis and action required will be to anticipate that event with action to create new products or services for the market or find different markets for existing products and services so that the event no longer will cause a failure of the business. If the business cannot generate as extra cash the amount required to make payment to an owner pursuant to existing buy-sell arrangements within the term of time required for the payment such that the stress of one owner leaving the business in a certain way will cause the business to fail the test, the analysis and action required is to adjust the payment and terms of the owners' agreement to more realistically reflect the reality of the business so that the owner can be paid and the business continue.

An important part of the review of a strategic plan for an owner-managed business is to start the stress test procedure by asking "What if...?" Do this many times. The more thorough the stress testing procedure, the better the plan will serve the future success of the business.