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How to Do Valuation of Your Small Business

Valuation

When you are looking forward to starting your own small business, you will have to familiarize yourself with a lot of new ideas. One of the important concepts that every business owner must be aware of is business valuation. So, what is business valuation, what is its importance and how do you do the valuation of a business? Read on to know.

Business Valuation

As the name clearly suggests, business valuation is the act of finding the value of your business in the market. It is just like finding the value of a house when you are about to sell it. You can use multiple methods to find the value of your business. However, it is always in your best interest that you hire a professional valuator to do it for you. They know multiple methods of valuation and will make sure that the final valuation is error-free.

The Importance of Business Valuation

The first thing you should know is that it is imperative to do the valuation of your business not for one but many reasons. The first reason that comes to mind is the selling of a business. When you want to sell your business to someone, you have to set a price for it. Sometimes, the owner of a business would want to plan succession i.e. the transferring of shares to an heir. The buy sell-agreement that they use for transferring the shares to their heirs requires them to know the value of the business.

If you have ever pitched your business to an investor, you must be aware of the fact that they always ask for business valuation. They are trying to assess a few different things based on the valuation you give them. First, they want to know how much their investment is worth. Secondly, they want to know whether or not you are fair with your investment demand if you are offering them equity for their contribution.

The Three Business Valuation Methods

Even though there are other business valuation methods as well, you will be reading about the three most common ones.

1. Valuation Based on Market Value

You also call this method the relative valuation method. It is a fairly straightforward way of knowing how much your business is worth. The valuators have to look at other businesses in the market that are similar to yours. They look at their selling prices and determine the value of your business based on those prices. Now, as simple and plain as this method sounds, it does not always work. For example, you don’t find the records of sole proprietorships that easily. So, when it comes to the valuation of a sole proprietorship business, finding records of similar businesses can pose quite a challenge.

2. Valuation Based on Business Future Earning Potential

This is an ingenious way to know the value of a business and one that helps you a great deal when it comes to obtaining investments from interested investors. This is quite a realistic approach but pitching it to investors can be a daring task.

First, you have to make sure that you have done proper calculations based on your current and past records to come up with the future earning potential of the business.

Secondly, you have to stand confidently with your decision because investors would often question you and your integrity a lot when they deem that you have valued your business much higher than you should have.

Capitalization of past earning is quite a frequently used approach to do this type of valuation wherein you look into the past financial reports of your business, smooth out any extraordinary earnings or expenses, and find the product of the normalized cash flow with a number referred to as capitalizing factor. It is not the only method used for determining the value of the business under this category. Another frequently used method is based on discounted future earnings.

3. Valuation Based on Assets

It is clear from the name that in this type of valuation you find the worth of the business based on the assets it owns. Once again, there are multiple ways to approach this valuation too. A common way to do this type of valuation takes liquidation of the business into account i.e. calculate how much money you would have if you sold every asset that your business owns and then subtract every liability from that sum. The other way is based on the ongoing status of the business wherein you look at the total value of your assets on the balance sheet and subtract your existing liabilities from them.

Once again, it is the sole proprietorship that poses challenges when it comes to doing the valuation of a business using this approach. Why the valuation of sole proprietorships is difficult using this method is because the owner in this case does not use the assets for business purposes only but personal as well.

You now know from the information given above that it is imperative for you to complete the valuation of your business. Whether it is for legal purposes or to sell your company at the right price, knowing the right value of your business is crucial. In the end, you should prepare your business financial documents regularly to help you find its value with convenience.

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The Right Way to Arrange and Manage Small Business Funds

Managing funds

The sustenance and growth of a business depends on how well it manages the funds available to it. The first step is to arrange the right funding based on a proper business plan. As a business owner, you don’t want to end up getting more funds than you need because you will then overly spend the money and end up with debt that’s hard to pay off.

The second step is to manage the funds properly and invest them for short-term and long-term benefits both. The biggest challenge for most new businessmen and entrepreneurs is capital. They either don’t know how to raise the money and fund their business or mismanage the funds they have available.

Raising Funds for a Small Business

Looking at how easy it has become to arrange funds for businesses today, there aren’t many excuses left for entrepreneurs as to why they were not able to start their business. The first thing you want to keep in mind when raising funds for your business is to avoid accumulating too much debt. Avoid any kind of debt if it is possible. If you have saved some money from the jobs, you have been doing, use that money to fund your business. If your parents or someone in your family is willing to fund your business, do not be hesitant to accept their help.

Among many good options to arrange funds for your small or starting business you have microloans. Microloans, as the name clarifies, are small loans. Since the amount is not that big, it is easy for the borrower to return this money. In most cases, microloans will not be more than $50,000. The good thing about such loans is that they are easy to obtain even if you don’t have the best of credit score. In many cases, you will get the loan amount credited into your bank account within two weeks after applying. However, the biggest drawback of microloans is that they have a huge interest rate associated with them.

Another way you can avoid burying your business under debt and still receive enough capital to fund the business is by having a partner on board. Rather than starting a sole proprietorship, you should consider making a partner. Making partners is easier when you already have a running business, even if it is a small one. The partner will come with their personal investment and help you fund your business. In fact, you could have a partner on board without offering any investment yourself. You can agree to be the service provider and allocate the partner to fund the business monetarily.

Managing Funds of a Small Business

Once you have arranged the funds for your business, it is time you get a grip on how you will spend that money. The most sensible thing to do here is to ask for investments only after you have created a business plan which clearly states how you will be spending the investment money. You don’t want to spend the invested funds randomly. Here is how you should manage your funds.

  • Separate Business and Personal Account

The first sign of your seriousness with your business is you separating your personal account from your business account. If you have use your personal account for your business as well, you will never know how much money you made from the business, how much you spent back on the business and how much you spent on your personal needs.

  • Be Cost Cutting

You don’t make a business successful by just increasing its revenue. The true art is to reduce the costs of running your business. Work on your B2B connections to partner with entities that can help you reduce the costs of manufacturing and production. Pinpoint the marketing campaigns that produce converting customers and stop spending money on campaigns that only bring in traffic but contribute nothing to conversions. Investors think the money you spend on your operations is money wasted. You want to spend money on productive processes. On the cost cutting side, you should use energy-efficient appliances, all-in-one office equipment, virtual office space, etc.

  • Hire Professionals

Sometimes, you have to spend more to save more. In some areas, it is the professionals who can help you the most. For example, when it comes to tax filing and the calculation of your tax deductions you want to have a professional on your side. Professional accountants can help you reduce your taxable income by working on your business expenses and figuring out any deductions and exemptions that your business qualifies for.

  • Create Cash Reserve

While you are managing your funds and running your business successfully, you want to put some money in cash reserves as well. It will be hard for you to manage a cash reserve amount if you are already making thin profits but the long term benefits of this sacrifice are huge. Your cash reserve saves you from obtaining loans and hence getting buried underneath debt.

Conclusion

Keep in mind that having a lot of money in your bank account does not guarantee a successful business. It does not matter how much money you have, a business owner who does not manage his/her finances properly will end up burning even millions of dollars without making a dime in profits. Use the options you have available today for funding the business. Do not think they will not work for you before you even try them.

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Some Unnecessary Small Business Expenses to Avoid

Business Expenses

When you start a business, you have to be extra careful with how you spend your capital. There are many ways for small business owners to increase their profits. Reducing their costs is one of the simplest and most effective ones. A lot of the times, entrepreneurs would add costs to their budgets that they don’t necessarily have to make. It might appear to them that these are necessary expenses when that’s not the case. They can add many of these expenses once their business has established.

Expenses That Small Businesses Should Avoid

Excessive Advertising

Yes, advertising is quite important for businesses, but excessive advertisement is not. It still makes sense for large businesses to go full-on with advertising because they have the budget to do so. However, when it comes to small businesses, they must do intelligent and selective advertising only. Their first course of action should be to identify the advertising channels that work best for them. Just because you are a restaurant at the corner of a street does not mean you have to use awnings, vinyls, neon signs, and all other types of materials for advertising purposes. Pick the ones that work and skip what doesn’t.

Too Many Work Hours

You don’t necessarily have to follow the trends of your competitors to compete with them. It does not matter how good they are, even the best ones can make mistakes at times. Many business owners choose to keep their premises opened for customers for long hours. They will open the business early in the morning and close it late at night just so they can serve more customers. However, one must do cost calculation before taking such a step? What if you are getting only five customers in the first three hours of the business and five more at the last two hours?

Now imagine the cost of utility, wages of your employees, etc. Are you covering the costs of keeping your business opened for five additional hours with only 10 customers? Even if you want to continue this way, you better test it for a week only. If the response is cold, you should quit this practice as soon as possible.

Pursuing the Best of Everything

The idea sounds great but is not the way to go about doing business when you are in your early stages. You should spend your money on things you need, not the things you want unless you have the budget to do so. If you are renting space for your office, you should look for a place that you can easily afford. Going for the best location in the most commercial area will cost you a lot of money. You can save your money even when it comes to internal equipment. Why buy new couches, seats and brand new computers when you can do with high-quality used equipment?

Why go for a printer with fancy looks and capacity to print hundreds of pages in a minute when you won’t ever need that many printouts at a time? Go with simple and beautiful when it comes to decorating your office. You don’t want to spend your budget on things that are not going to yield any benefits for your business.

Hiring IT Staff

IT is integral to any business today, tech or non-tech. However, it does not mean you have to have an IT team on board. One of the beauties of modern technology is that it allows you to outsource a lot of the business processes. The best thing about outsourcing business processes is that you can save a lot of money by doing so. Managed IT services are a perfect way for you to save IT costs while benefitting from expertise of the best professionals of the industry. Rather than paying thousands of dollars to three or four IT people, it makes more sense for small businesses to outsource their IT processes for a small monthly fee.

The good news is that you can outsource almost anything IT-related. From basic helpdesk to on-demand data officers, IT outsourcing can cover a lot of ground for you.

Unnecessary Debts

Taking loans when starting a business is imperative for your growth and to have enough cash in hand to support your operations. However, there are more ways to fund your business than you might realize. Many small business owners follow venture capitalists and conventional banks when it comes time to fund their businesses. However, crowdfunding has emerged as an amazing funding option for startups and small businesses. The good thing about crowdfunding is that you do not necessarily have to offer equity to the investors in your business. Sometimes, you can just reward them with a sample of your product.

Hiring Only Full-time Employees

If you own a small business, you might want to consider hiring interns. Interns can benefit your business in many ways. First, you do not have to pay them the salary of a full-time employee. Second, you can ask them to do a lot of the mundane tasks that otherwise affect the productivity of your full-time employees negatively. While it might not be the best practice, in some countries of the world they have free internships as well wherein you do not have to pay your interns. However, that’s not the right thing to do, and you should compensate their work to keep them motivated.

Conclusion

You should consider avoiding these expenses if you are a small business owner or about to be one. You can always take advice from those who have their own businesses to figure out what’s necessary and what’s not. Keep yourself up-to-date with new technological advancements. Taking advantage of modern software and hardware solutions can help you save a lot of money. Take the example of a printer with duplex printing option. You could cut your paper costs in half by printing on both sides of the paper. In the end, look into your current setup and operations to see what some expenses are that you can easily live without.

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Seasonable Business Cash Flow – Big Problem but with a Solution

Cash

It can be quite the hassle as a seasonable business. No matter how well you plan the year, you always seem to be struggling a while after the profitable season ends. Cash flow is somehow always a problem, but it’s not impossible to manage. Sure, it’ll take some effort and organization on your part, but it’s nothing that a dedicated business owner can’t handle.

There are a number of seasonal businesses, from farming to tourism and all the way to event planning. Although the nature of these trades is different, managing cash flow will be similar because of their seasonal characteristic. Here is what you have to do.

Know Your Seasons

You may think this is basic knowledge for any seasonal business owner. However, in a majority of cases, business owners horribly overestimate their peak season. Moreover, they underestimate the costs of operating during off-seasons. When you know the exact timings of your season, you’re able to derive accurate conclusions that set apart fact from fiction.

If you run a new business, you’ll have to start taking detailed notes from year one. Conduct research based on other seasonal companies but if you’re established, it’s time to bring out the records. Once you figure out your business’ periods of maximum revenue and expenditure and vice versa, you can plan on a forecasting strategy.

Forecast Your Business

By forecasting your cash flow throughout the year, you’re able to evaluate how much funding you have, in response to the costs. You should analyze your records to form a plan with regard to spending and sales, and how much cash flow you can retain after peak season.

You should form an analysis of sales and spending forecasts based on the factors that drive it. This includes product lines, channels, and units. Then, you should check whether your evaluation matches the accounting records.

When you’re forecasting cash flow for your business, ensure that it manages any references to sales on account, inventory management, asset replenishment and repayment of debts, which are sensitive to cash flow. When you keep track of all these things together, you won’t have to think about why unknown costs keep popping up despite the effort.

Maintain Forecasts with Concentration and Money

Making a record of forecasts once isn’t enough and never will be. The market and economy can shift within a second, so you must not fail to keep the changes reviewed and revised. This theory of development ensures that you know what’s happening, so you can adopt a new strategy next time.

Know the Expected Expenses

In a business, there are always some recurring expenses that remain fairly constant over time. You should account for these so that you can accurately forecast expenses during off-peak seasons. These costs include the price of utilities and rent but some that won’t come to mind. To know those, you’ll need to break into the account books.

In the end, you’ll be left with a somewhat expected figure as to how much you’ll have to pay in quarterly taxes and business insurance premiums. You should add these to your forecast because planning for them will be helpful during seasons with low business.

Address Changes

Sometimes, it’s enough to simply know when your business becomes vulnerable. Even if you can’t manage things yourself, you can still ask for some help. Instead of worrying about what terrors the off-season can bring to your business, think about what you can do to calmly face the inevitable. Surely, you’ll run out of capital no matter how well you manage cash flow so what does one do? You take a loan.

Think of it this way, taking an emergency loan just days before making your employees’ payroll will be very different from applying for a bridge loan months before off-season starts. For starters, you’ll get a good interest rate, and you’ll develop a good relationship with the bank.

A misconception is that well-run seasonal businesses shouldn’t need loans to generate cash flow during the off-season but this isn’t true. It’s much more achievable for a seasonal business to anticipate extra costs beforehand and take a special loan as one sees fit. Investors and bankers will show a positive response to good planning and anticipation so you shouldn’t forget to tell them about your business’ seasonality.

Restructure Some Expenses

As a seasonal business, you’ll need to pull some strings here and there to make sure that you get through the rest of the year until you’re back in peak season. One of the things you can do is to structure certain expenses in a way that they match the revenue you have in the current season.

For instance, if you make handcrafted products and deal with vendors for materials, you can form an agreement with them so they demand bigger payments in peak season while making off-season payments smaller.

Empty Your Shelves

In today’s world of consumers, quite a lot of people don’t shop during the season. This could be due to a number of reasons; they’re trying to avoid the crowd or they simply don’t want to pay the higher price. They’re waiting for an off-season sale to stock up, and as a good business owner, you should provide.

Empty out any leftover inventory from peak-season by selling products at a fair discount. This will help you generate extra revenue, as well as a pool of off-season customers. Not to mention, you’ll also be reducing the expenses of storing items.

Improve Your Line of Expertise

This is the final piece of advice that any seasonal business can get and it has more to do with becoming a multi-seasonal business. Experts suggest that seasonal businesses expand their line of work by offering different services during the off-season.

For instance, roofing companies take up jobs like snow removal during the winter. Your business can do something similar and boost cash flow throughout the rest of the year.

Conclusion

These are some of the solutions a seasonal business can adopt to improve their cash flow during the off-seasons of the year. Now, there’s no reason to do everything simultaneously. However, consistency is key. By slowly working towards a successful off-season period, seasonal businesses can improve strategies and boost peak-season practices.

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Utilizing Business Templates

Templates

Many have used services and professionals to create contracts, legal documents, and notices. Many documents can be created for free or for a small fee online. It can be nice to have an excellent source to find a templates for a few of the following:

Bill of Sale, Power of Attorney, Rental Lease Agreement, Will, Eviction Notice.

Funded.com has a free business plan executive summary included in a trial membership. The templates can then be customized or reviewed if needed by an attorney, accountant, or business plan writer. Many sites can walk you through the details if you start the template online. If you use a downloaded template, they will have the details printed in a different color to insert or replace into your own wording. There are features that you can save these final documents in a word document and resave and use them again.

It is good to review with your own state’s housing association of accepted or template leases or eviction notices. It can vary from state to state what these agreements require and what to ensure you do not include if you use a last will and testament. It can be helpful to check guidelines for witnesses and notary. Some states require witnesses to sign the will, and some require a notary. Of course, you can always have a teller at your bank notarize any documents.

Overall using templates for start-ups or existing businesses or personal. You can use it to frame the structure of a legal document to effectively and economically produce something on paper. It is common for professionals to use templates of their own to draft plans or documents in the same legal manner.

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General Tips for Negotiating Scenarios

Negotiating

The best solutions are always a win-win, and it is an important way for negotiating scenarios of everyday living that when the chips are down, you have the best tools in your toolbox for getting what you want, covering face-to-face, emails, and telephone. So here are some simple short tips that might be helpful.

Face to face: 

If it is, you bought something on craigslist and want to be negotiating a better price. You can point out some flaws and say, ” I really like this but am not quite willing to spend this much ” I think it needs a bit more to get this to what I would like to pay: Would you take? Then give a price; it can even be 20%-50% lower, but you can start the price negotiations.

Emails and dealing with customer service:

Suppose you find that you are trying to get something from a company that you hope to get that refund for a company like eBay or Amazon. It is best to write a friendly tone about getting a refund and list why. However, it never goes well if a threat is made initially, like writing a bad review or threatening to dispute with your bank. If in sending the email and they don’t give you the answer you are looking for, try-try again, rephrase and explain more why, and that you would appreciate this, etc. More success stories are given when the person on the other side sees your email as courteous. If you get what is expected, it is nice to give them a good review as a thank you.

Telephone Tips:

Everyone knows how frustrating to try and call customer service lines as it can also be part of negotiating what you want to get out of the call. You finally reach a live agent after prompts, and it sounds like your situation is not going in your favor after trying to get additional services or a better deal. They stick to a script and price when dealing with cable or mobile companies. Always ask if they can do any better with the price, even prepare by getting their competitors’ ads and mentioning them. If you can’t get someone to budge and are paying a monthly subscription, you can ask to transfer to cancellations. Usually, that is when they are authorized to pull out the stops and give you their bottom dollar. This mainly works with utility, mobile, cable, or any company they have to transfer you to cancel your services.

Overall, the main takeaway is always being kind and courteous will go far if you are hard-charging or abrasive, even if you have the right to be. Chances are the other side may dig in. Indeed, there are times to show you are mad to get what you want. However, it is best to start by being cautious and respectful.

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How to Form The Culture Of Your Business Startup

culture

Right from the very beginning of your business startup’s formation, you have already begun to create its corporate culture. Whether you have taken an active role in shaping it or allowed it to organically develop, your corporate culture becomes a part of your business based on your behaviors, vision, and values of your brand. Creating a positive organizational culture can allow your business startup to thrive both internally with your employees and externally as they interface with your customer base.

Being proactive at the beginning of your business startups foundation can work to develop a culture that employees take pride in being a part of and also help to express your vision into the long term. Waiting until you are a more established business with a team of employees to worry about your corporate culture can have a negative impact on your business as you forget about the very ideals that make your business startup who it is. With a little bit of management and foresight now, you can craft a corporate culture that follows your business startup’s vision, values, mission, and expected behaviors.

Find Your Purpose

Start by thinking about what the vision for your business really is. You need to think about where you where you are headed and where you want to go. Having some direction early on with your business startup will give you, as well as your employees, something to work towards and aim for. The decisions and choices you make should directly support your vision and allow you to drive your company well into the future.

Along with your vision, you need to create the values that your business startup stands for. This is an important step as this will carve out the ideals of your brand and expectations of your employees. Your employees are just as much a reflection of your business as you are and having values that they can live up to can bring a strong reputation and recognition to your company.

Spread the Message

Once you have developed a vision strategy for your business startup, you need to be vocal about it. You can’t expect your team to catch on if they are unaware of its evolution. Spread the message and allow yourself to be transparent about its meaning to you. Allowing yourself to be open and communicative about how your vision and values align with the success of your business startup can create the buzz your company needs to take it to the next level.

Hire According to Your Values

As you add to your team, you need to find the right fit when it comes to your company culture. You want to hire employees that display your brand values as it will be an easier transition into your corporate culture to respect and stand behind what your business stands for.

As you work to select employees to work at your business startup find out what your values mean to them. Look for ways that they already integrate these values into their daily life. A prospective employee that possess experience, as well as your core values, can be a valuable addition to your business startup as they can bring that positivity your corporate culture needs. You can count on them to spread your vision message to others as well as be contagious to other employees that may have not fully onboard with your company purpose.

Reward and Appreciate

It’s always nice to offer your employees perks, but as a businessstartup, the funding may not be there to give a lot. Recognition of your team goes a long way especially for those that display your company values in the work that they do. Develop a reward system to appreciate those that are incorporating the vision of your business startup with customers or in their work responsibilities and choices they make on a day-to-day basis. This small act can boost your corporate culture and make your business startup a company that employee value and cherish.

Think About The Past

With a focus on the future it can be easy to forget about your past, but how your started and where you came from is the very foundation that shaped your business today. Think about your history and the hard work that took to get where your business startup is today. Allow your employees to also understand the story behind your company and what it took to get it to its beginning stages.

Your past is a significant part of the strength of your business and most likely is what you drew your values from. Your employees need to understand the motivation and drive that propelled your business startup forward. Be upfront about your history and embrace it with a furry as it is the sole reason you are in the position you are today. When your employees see your roots, this will impact how they feel about the company and the vision that you have created to take it into the future.

Focus Daily On Your Culture

It is not enough to create your vision and values and be done with your corporate culture. It needs constant cultivation to prevent it from going to the wayside and becoming negative in a blink of an eye. You have an amazing opportunity as a business startup to start your corporate culture from the ground up as it is much easier to manage then change.

Make it a part of your routine to enforce the vision and lead by your company values. With you focus on maintaining a corporate culture that employees enjoy being a part of, you will reap the benefits from their improved productivity and performance.

When you focus on your corporate culture from the beginning stages of your business startup, you can easily create an environment that is positive for all that work there. You will see behaviors that are in line with your core values and strength in your corporate vision. The work starts now but will be well worth your efforts.

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Choosing the Best Business Name

Business Name

It is always the most important step in the very beginning of a business idea is choosing the right business name for your business. This is the name that will be define what you are going to be doing in your business or trade. If you name your business something that is unique or identifies who you are and what your doing will be a great and important step for the success of your business. It is not uncommon businesses later have to change their name after starting up because of conflicts or simply they like a better name and want to start using that name.

There are some initial steps to finding a good name. The first is searching available domain names. It is most likely that if you can find the available .com name that the name itself is available. However, this still needs to be searched online first as to what shows in the search engines with that name. You can also search the Trademark office online for a business search to see who has used that name in the past and if it is trademarked with the same type of industry or product you intend to sell.

The process of finding a good name is a process and patience and determination need to be on your side as to what you want and not settling for something that is not so good, or no impact. If you are marketing on the internet, sometimes a name with the product you are marketing can help search engines rank you better and people like to see the domain describe the marketed product or service, like something with “tree” in title if you are a tree service.

You can start out with doing a search on a domain names with what you want as part of title. You can find domains available from sites like these. You can usually type in part of the name like “tree” and see how many are names are available. It is good to use also considered buying the domain. After you break down a list of potential good names and cross checked on the internet decide on a few choice names. You may even register a couple to reserve the option to use later if they are available for registration.

You will not ever regret being patient in finding the perfect name. You can eventually set up a DBA or LLC in the same name if it is also available from the Secretary of State. You can also visit our featured partners link for help finding businesses services.

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Expansion Pitfalls All Small Businesses Must Avoid

Expansion

A great number of small business owners have a constant urge to expand. Of course, the mere idea of expansion and becoming a “big” business known to thousands and millions of people is fascinating. However, expansion is not all about finding a new office space and hiring new employees to fill the vacant seats.

There is much more to expansion than most small business owners realize. It is unfortunate that a larger population of these business owners is only focused on the benefits of expanding while completely omitting the challenges that entail business expansion. Let’s take a look at some of the most common challenges, concerns and considerations before you expand your small business.

Major Pitfalls to Avoid before Expanding a Small Business

 

  • Outdated Information of Market Conditions

Too often, the decision to expand taken by most small business owners is based on information that is many months old. The important thing to consider here is continuous market research. An idea that seemed like it will lead the market a few months ago might be an average offering today.

For example, you might have landed in the market with a unique product, and its sudden popularity might make you think you should expand as soon as possible. What you don’t realize is that the acceptance and popularity rate of your product can diminish with time. The big reason behind that is the competitors who can imitate anything that you have created.

It does not matter if you have patented the technology, method or the product itself before launching it. Your competitors will always find some way to imitate and emulate your products. A great example of this is Apple, the tech giant that patented the touchscreen technology. You can see there are more non-Apple touchscreen smartphones in the world today than Apple’s own iPhone.

  • Regional Limitations

When you are expanding your business into new territories, you must know them well. You cannot expect people to react to your offerings, marketing methods, advertising tactics in the same way everywhere. In fact, cultural considerations are an extremely important consideration when businesses are expanding.

You don’t have to be expanding to a completely new country to consider culture. There are many things that people in one state might love and people in another state completely hate.

These considerations have to be made based on the type of business you have. If your business has some cultural dependencies, you have to be very careful with where you are thinking of expanding your business operations.

  • Cash Flow Challenges

You need to be on top of your cash flow before you expand. Cash flow is important for any business, but it is essential when it comes time for expansion. It does not matter how much money you are expecting to come into the business after making the expansion move; it is going to require a lot of money upfront too.

This is the time when you have to stop thinking about the revenue and start focusing on your income. Your revenue does not tell you how feasible it is for you to expand your business. It is the money that you can use without affecting your current operations that matter in the expansion.

Look at your profits and see how big they are. If your profits are small, don’t just assume that things will be fine and you should just make a move. You don’t want to create a situation where not only you fail with expansion but affect your existing operations as well.

  • Technological Issues

The way modern businesses operate, technology goes wherever your business goes. Many small business owners think of expansion only regarding new office space, furniture, and new employees, but that’s not the case. Today’s businesses rely heavily on technologies, both hardware, and software. When your business expands, you have to support it with better hardware but what’s more important is the software side.

Unless you are using a cloud solution for your database and other internal tasks and activities, you will have to spend a lot of time in arranging the right system. Syncing information across multiple locations and managing bigger databases with more accounts and information can be a challenge in the beginning.

  • Overestimating Business Popularity

Some businesses that start with a unique idea and get attention from media fast are able to reap great benefits from sudden demand spikes. This situation often makes business owners feel that they should expand as soon as possible. What they don’t realize is that this is only the “trial” period for customers in their minds.

Even if they like your product, in the beginning, it does not mean they have put full trust in your offerings. A onetime purchase does not translate to loyal customers and repetitive purchases. You might have received a great response from customers when you started the business but wait for some time to know if your customers have started to repeat.

It is only the number of repeat customers that can tell you if your product/service has been a success. It could be a nightmare for you if you start getting negative reviews from your first customers as soon as you expand into new markets and locations. You could end up creating too much inventory that no one is willing to buy.

  • Underestimating Growth of Employees

While a lot of things get overestimated by new business owners before expansion, there are some things that they underestimate. Sometimes, business owners are not able to fully foresee their growth regarding employees.

They arrange new space to continue business operations in a new location without realizing that the growing number of employees will force them to expand their office space again. Not only is it inefficient but it could lead to a lot of hassle for the working employees if the expansion of office space takes place while they are working there.

Final Words

The most important thing to keep in mind when you have your own business, and you are considering expansion regarding business operations or product/service offerings, is patience. Always take your time before making a move because when you are a small business, you don’t have a lot of support to recover from huge financial losses like large enterprises do.

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Cutting Costs without Reducing Your Team Is Indeed Possible

Costs

One of the things that many businesses around the world are notorious for is layoffs of their workers when they have to cut costs. It appears as though the least required asset for these companies is their workers. As brutal as it may sound, many businesses reduce their team sizes to reduce their costs every day. It is quite surprising because there are in fact dozens of different ways for businesses, especially small ones, to cut their costs without sending their employees home. Not to mention, small businesses aren’t in the best position to terminate their employees when they are already struggling with growth and expansion.

Let us first look at the circumstances and reasons why small businesses resort to firing their employees and terminating their contracts.

Reasons Why Businesses Terminate Their Employees

  •  Your Employee’s Performance is below Requirements

The biggest and probably the most valid reason for firing an employee is when they are not able to perform according to the set targets. Despite this being a valid reason, you should always follow the complete procedure and let go of your employee most ethically and professionally possible. Tell them that they also have the right to quit a company when a company does not pay them as promised and vice versa.

  •  Your Employee Isn’t Honest

You have noticed that your employee is not honest. They try to spend time doing nothing behind your back and are interested in things that they should not be concerned with. It is a risk to have such a worker working at the company.

  •  Your Employee Is Having a Hard Time Assimilating

One of the reasons why many employees are not able to give their best is because they can’t fit in the culture of your workplace. It’s either their religious, personal or moral beliefs that don’t let them feel being a part of the team.

  •  Your Employee Doesn’t Care

Believe it or not, some employees don’t care about the rules and regulations of your workplace and being at a professional place. They bully people around them, try to act pretentious, are not punctual and do not pay any attention to the dress code policy.

  •  Your Employees Cost You Too Much

This is quite an oxymoronic situation where the people who bring you business are the ones costing you money. Sometimes, companies become financially weak, and the only way they have to reduce their costs is firing employees. This helps them save money on employee compensation, bonuses, and incentives.

Is Employee Termination the Only Way to Cut Costs?

Not at all! There are many other ways for companies to reduce their costs without letting go of their employees. Here are some.

  •  Negotiations with Vendors and Suppliers

You can look into your current list of suppliers and vendors and look for opportunities to reduce costs. You have to realize that there are group purchasing organizations developed specifically for this purpose. Furthermore, there are online search engines designed specifically for businesses where you can find other businesses that can help you reduce your costs.

  •  Buy in Bulk

One simple way to reduce your costs is to purchase in bulk. Whether you are buying products or subscribing to software or online platform services, bulk purchases will always help you reduce your costs. As a business, you are subscribed to dozens of different online services and buy various items on a monthly or weekly basis. Buy them for several months or a complete year to save your costs.

  •  Reduce Lavish Expenses for Now

It is amazing that businesses offer their employees with refreshments, coffee, and teas for free, but there is a time when you can do this with ease. Until and unless you have reached a point where affording such luxuries do not bother you at all, do not introduce them.

  •  Invest in the Right Technology

Whether you are buying an electric generator for your office, bulbs and lights, ceiling fans, air conditioning units or machinery, you must invest in latest and energy-efficient technology.

  •  Market Wisely

Marketing can suck a lot of your capital out of business depending on the type of marketing you are doing. However, it will be rewarding for you if you use analytical data to narrow down only the marketing campaigns that are lucrative for your business. Spend on them and keep away from spending on marketing efforts that have not yielded any good results.

Similarly, you can find many other ways to reduce your costs without sending your employees home.

Risks Associated with Firing Your Employees

While firing your employees should be the last thing on your list of methods to cut costs, you must also know the many risks that come with employee termination. Here are a few.

  •  Sharing of Company Secrets with Competitors

When employees are not happy with your decision of firing them, they may not care about what action you can take against them. They may go for interviews with your competitors and share your trade secrets. This can be a big set-back for you if your competitor decides to take advantage of the situation.

  •  Lawsuits

When employees believe they have been fired based on unreasonable grounds, they may try to take you to court. If any wrongful termination is proved, it can be expensive for your company. Always be sure to complete the procedure of termination or make sure the termination is justified.

  •  Attack on Brand Image through Social Media

Today, people have a voice, and some people are ready to listen to their voice. Social networking platforms are great places for employees to discredit your brand and slander your image if they believe they were terminated by you wrongfully.

  •  Bad Performance of Existing Employees

It does not matter how much you care about your employees. They may have a stronger connection among themselves than they have with you. Therefore, when you terminate an employee and cause some dissention among the ranks.

So, it is highly recommended that you consider the many other ways of cutting costs for your small business before choosing to terminate your employees.

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