4 Ways to Ensure Your Business Doesn’t Fold

Every day dozens of businesses close their doors for good. While every businessman or woman believes that this type of fate won’t happen to their business, there is a possibility that it could happen to any business.

While there is no guarantee that your business won’t fold, there are four main things you can do to ensure the success of your business.

Always Stay in Constant Contact

One of the biggest mistakes businesses make is limiting the way clients and customers can contact them. To stay successful you will want to make sure you have every possible form of communication covered. Whether it is using a text messaging service or Metrofax email faxing, you will want your customers to be able to reach you by any means possible.

Keep Marketing Your Company

Many businesses feel that if they are successful they don’t have to keep marketing themselves. To be successful you need to keep marketing your business and reaching out to new customers. This ensures a constant stream of clients and customers

Create a Budget

You can’t stay in business if you aren’t profitable. Try to create a budget for your business and stick to it. This will allow you to see how much you are bringing in, where the money is going, and where you can make changes.

Create a Business Plan

Many business owners make the mistake of jumping into the business world and not having a set plan of action. By creating a business plan you are giving yourself direction and helping yourself succeed in the business world.

Following these four tips will help you keep yourself in business.

Saving Money While Protecting Your Home

Along with your property taxes, your homeowners insurance will be one of the biggest expenditures you make in regards to your family home. While most people choose to escrow payments for their taxes and insurance, you can also choose to set money aside yourself throughout the year and then pay those bills when they come due. While this allows you more control over your payments and the opportunity to make interest on the funds set aside, it can cause complications if you’re not diligent about saving.

If you’re interested in getting the most from your family home as an investment, you will also want to do your research before selecting a homeowners insurance carrier. Not all insurance companies are comparable, as many charge much more in premiums than others for the same level of protection. Try to consult with a ​​​​Policy Expert before choosing your insurance provider, and get quotes for the rates, deductibles and limits so that you can accurately compare policies.

Insurance on the structure isn’t your only consideration if you’re trying to be frugal while protecting your investment. Take the time to view here and look into insuring your contents and land, as well. If you have other buildings on your property, such as a shed or garage, you’ll want to make sure that those are also included in any quotes you request. Spending too much on your insurance won’t get you a better policy, so reviewing those quotes is of the utmost importance in protecting your family’s investment.

Saving Money on Business Trips

Bad design: Where does the credit card go?

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Millions of salesmen and managers are traveling for work each day. The cost of traveling can quickly add up, especially if your company doesn’t cover your expenses.

The most effective way a company can save money when they send their employees on business trips is by proper financial management. Financial expert Armandao Montelongo works at helping people and companies get in control and on track with their finances.

Here are tips to saving money on business trips.

Corporate Credit Card

The senior employee should handle the responsibility of having the corporate credit card. This card will allow you to get more benefits and frequent flier miles when you use it to pay for all business-related expenses, which include your meals, hotel, cab fare and car rental.

Reimbursement

Some companies will offer a policy for reimbursing employees when they travel to make sure that they’re not spending too much. Put in strict guidelines when it comes to what and how much an employee will get reimbursed for their trip. This will also avoid any company money from being wasted.

Fly Early or Late

Choosing early morning or late night flights is the easiest way to save money. While these times are not ideal for many people, they often come at a discounted price. Airlines do this to fill up each flight.

Travel Light

Many people end up spending more money because of the amount of baggage they take with them. Limit the amount of luggage you’re bringing on the business trip.

Take Advantage of the Benefits

When you’re traveling for business, most clients will offer free food and drinks. Take advantage of anything that is complimentary. It will quickly reduce the amount of stops you make and how much is spent on dining out.

How To Save Money

For most people it is hard to save money, especially when they feel they don’t have it to save. The first thing you need to do to start saving money is create a budget. Calculate your income and write down all of your monthly expenses. First, you have your fixed expenses such as your rent and other monthly bills. Total the cost of all of these expenses . Then you have your variable expenses such as groceries and utilities. Estimate the cost of these and add the total. Subtract all of your expenses from your monthly income to see where you are at with your money. If you find you are spending more than you should, find an area you can cut back on.

If you find you have money left over, put this money into savings and emergency funds. Also, put a set amount of money into savings each month as part of your budget. Reduce some of your entertainment costs and put the extra money into savings. Write down where all your money goes. If you find you are spending money on something that is completely unnecessary, such as an unused gym membership, get rid of it and add that money into savings as well.

Find some ways to reduce the cost of your variable expenses. Try looking for sales and using coupons when you go grocery shopping. Save energy in your home by turning off the lights and air conditioner when you don’t need them. You should open a savings account and put all of your savings in the bank so you are not tempted to use the money.

All About Business Casual

Bill Gates in business-casual attire.

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There is no doubt that business attire has become more casual in recent years. In many businesses, you can now find even the president of the company and the members of the board dressing in khakis and polo shirts much of time. Other companies are not quite ready to take such drastic steps and, instead, prefer to implement the occassional casual Friday.

Regardless of whether you work for a company that has a permanent business casual dress code or one that only allows such dress once day a week, this does not mean that you can wear what you choose. Indeed, in most businesses, you will still need to dress somewhat formally. You will also need to be aware of a few rules that can help prevent you from making a fashion blooper.

Whether you are a woman or a man, you can expect that khaki pants are suitable business casual attire. A long sleeve shirt that buttons down is considered to be a safe choice as well. For some companies, however, you can wear a short sleeve button down shirt or a polo shirt. Be sure to tuck your shirt in and wear a belt regardless of which type of shirt you choose to wear.

Athletic shoes and sandals are not typically appropriate footwear when you are dressing in business casual attire. Rather you should wear a business loafer or, if you are a woman, you can wear low heels. Be sure that all of your clothing and footwear is in good repair, clean and pressed.

 

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Helpful Saving Tips for Businesses

Many, if not all, businesses are trying to saving money and increase their bottom lines. Saving money will essentially add to that profit margin. There are many ways for business owners and managers to do a little cost savings.

To begin with, owners should take a good look at marketing and advertising costs. It’s a great idea to make sure you are getting the very best prices for such things as brochure printing and other advertising print costs. Look at using the very best designers and other marketing professionals who can help you keep your costs down, while still effectively marketing your business.

Take a good look at what you are paying for utility costs. Unfortunately, many business owners do not pay much attention to utility bills, and may be overpaying. There are many companies and consultants that can help businesses improve the cost savings with utilities. Many of these companies work on contingency, and business will not have to pay unless a savings is found.

Almost every business carries an insurance policy of some kind. This can include errors and omissions or liability insurance. Most business owners do not spend a lot of time exploring and investigating insurance options. Instead of using an agent who represents a single insurance company, consider using a broker who represents several insurance companies and who can give you a comparative analysis of your needs and available insurance policies.

There are many other ways to decrease the cost of doing business while still effectively running your business; all you need to do is look at a few things that might be getting overlooked.

Keeping Your Business Alive During a Recession

Tough economic times are always tough on businesses. No matter how big or small your company is when people don’t have money or are facing tough financial decisions, it can affect your business drastically. Luckily, there are some things you can do to help get your business through tough economic times.

Here is a look at what business experts recommend you trying to do for your business in order to help keep it afloat during a recession.

Diversify

The businesses that are doing the best are the ones that offer more than one service or product. Offering more products and services can help absorb the hit your business is taking financially because one section may be doing better than another.

If you are considering diversifying your business make sure that what you are offering is relevant to your business and not something completely different because this could negatively impact your business. Try to stick to something that is different but still within the target audience for your customers.

Step Up Marketing

It might sound silly that you need to step up your marketing during a recession but studies show that customers will tend to gravitate towards companies that are in their radar. To get in the customers’ radar you keep to step up the marketing.

To step up your marketing consider launching an internet marketing campaign, taking advantage of community events and getting the word out there about your business anyway possible.

Diversifying and amping your marketing campaigns can help give you the advantage your business needs to stay in business during these tough economic times.

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Low Cost Marketing for Businesses

One of the most expensive business expenses you will face when trying to start up a small business is the cost of marketing. Marketing through newspapers, magazines and radio ads can cost thousands of dollars and there is no guarantee it can generate any income. Luckily, there are some low cost marketing solutions out there that can help you get your business’ name out there and not have to spend a fortune doing it.

Here’s a look at some of the most popular low cost marketing solutions for small businesses.

Local Search Engine Directories

Search engines like Yahoo, Bing and Google all have local search engine directories where you can list your local business. Most listings are free and allow you to link back to your business website or place information about your business on the listing. These listings are great ways to bring in customers as people searching for a service or product through the search engine may pull up your business and choose to use it.

Social Media Pages

Social media outlets like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook all are great ways to market your business and the best part is they are free. Just create a business page for your company and start interacting and following people on the websites. Within no time you’ll develop a following and that following will bring in new customers.

Networking

Word of mouth is free and can really generate a lot of hype and marketing for your business. Talk to anyone who will listen about your business and always have a business card in hand so they know where to go.

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Choosing the Best Business Software Tools

Software has come a very long way from the days when it was little more than a gimmick or a huge, Stone Age storage system for basic information. While punch cards are long forgotten and even physical drives themselves are starting to seem like clunky things to carry around, software is here to stay, regardless of what type of machine you keep it in. This software can do incredible things for your business, from the beginning to the end.

For starters, you can use FreeMind to map out where your business is going, before it even takes off. As time goes on, you’ll naturally drift a little bit, but the overall plan is made to evolve. As time goes on, you’ll start attracting customers. You can go with a marketing company, or market yourself directly through the Warrior Forum or Craigslist. As you begin garnering customers, you’ll start to pick up on trends.

Of course, this is just intuition, which needs to be tempered with facts. From this intuition, you can employ survey software to learn more and more about what your customers really want.

In time, you’ll be able to harness the power of your surveys to really know what your customers want and how they want it. Sometimes, you’ll find that the software supplies you with answers you could have guessed on your own. However, there are going to be times when you would never have guessed how people would reply. While people can always say things on surveys — whether intentionally misleading you or not knowing themselves very well — such an occurrence tends to diffuse over large numbers.

 

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Looking Into Tax Audits for S Corporations

IRS building on Constitution Avenue in Washing...

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Many businesses consider themselves an S corporation. It is estimated that over 70% of all corporations in the United States use the S corporation status when filing for their federal and state income taxes. S corporations are extremely popular because the owners report the income and deductions to the IRS which avoids  the dreaded double tax effect that can sometimes happen.

The problem with S corporations is that there is an extremely high risk for a tax audit. The IRS pulls 5,000 random S corporation filings to audit every year. Here’s a look at what the IRS is looking for when they audit S corporations.

Appropriate Compensation

Many S corporations have a tendency to underpay their shareholders and various employees. This is done in an effort to lower the social security taxes the corporation needs to pay. While this is not illegal it can be viewed as a sly way for corporations to get away without having to pay various employment taxes and stick their employees with this burden.

Excessive Write-Offs

S corporation owners have a habit of making excessive write-offs when it comes to business tax deductions. During an IRS audit, the IRS is looking into all tax write-offs the corporation claimed and making sure that these are legitimate and substantiated tax deductions. It is also looking for proper documentation and receipts to support these various deductions.

While filing as an S corporation may be helpful to many businesses, you run a risk of facing the dreaded IRS tax audit. Knowing what the IRS is looking for can help you prepare and prevent any problems from occurring during your audit.

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