Odin Collie

If you are determined to make a go of building your own business, then you will be faced with a major challenge because of the lack of an established business track record. Most brand new businesses require some capital in order to get started, but without past business financial information it can be difficult to secure a loan for that purpose.

Banks and other types of lending institutions rely on receiving a variety of fiscal information from small business borrowers in order to make a decision about loaning money to them. If you are just starting out and your business is brand new, then you will not have cash flows or dividends information, or financial statements for your business that you can supply to the lenders. Without that detailed history of business operations and financial reports it is difficult to secure a loan.

Because of this situation, the banker or loan officer handling your small business loan will have to rely on your personal financial information. This means they will be primarily evaluating you, your business plan, and their estimation of whether or not you have the potential to become a successful business owner.

When it comes to new businesses, the lenders are very much aware that a very large percentage of new businesses fail in the first two years of operation. This fact, combined with the lack of a business track record, fiscal information and financial statements that lenders prefer to rely on are what makes the lenders so wary about approving loans for brand new businesses.  Read more...

If you need software to handle retail transactions, then Quickbooks Point of Sale is something that you should consider. Not only can it handle your transactions but it can do a host of other things that are essential to your business. Whether it is employee management, inventory management or reporting, Quickbooks Point of Sale software is up to the task. Make sure that you have the best solution possible for ringing in those sales.

Whether your retail customers will be paying by credit card, debit card or with cash, Quickbooks Point of Sale can handle it all. You also don’t have to worry if you’re going to have a sale. Quickbooks Point of Sale software can be set to automatically reduce the sale price to the amount you desire. It has the ability to read bar codes and then apply the appropriate sales amount so everything happens efficiently at the register. It can even handle a situation where customer has store credit and wants to redeem it.

Beyond these, Quickbooks Point of Sale can be used to produce gift cards. This is a business angle that not everybody considers but it has huge potential. Not only can Quickbooks Point of Sale handle the creation of gift cards but the redemption of them as well. You can use the software to handle customer information so that you can make the most of store promotions and easily set up reward programs for the customers that are most valuable to you.  Read more...

Every company’s financial statements tell a story about the value of the business. That’s why the financial statements are the starting point in any appraisal of a business (commonly referred to as a business valuation).

Here is what every business owner should understand about how their financial statements impact the value of their business:

- Income Statement Analysis

- Balance Sheet Analysis

- Ratio Analysis

Income Statement Analysis:

Earning power is one of the most important elements of the value of a business. The income statement develops this story.

The income statement matches total revenues and total expenses over a period of time, and it represents the best measure of management’s ability to utilize company resources in the production of a profit. A review of the company’s one-year operating figures compared to previous year’s results and results of other companies over the same periods takes on more meaning and helps evaluate the efficiency and consistency of management’s operation of the company. These variances and trends tell a story. The story may identify increasing, decreasing, stagnant, or erratic behavior related to pricing, expense control, or marketing ability to generate sufficient sales volume.

Once variances and trends are identified, the next question is “why?” The answer to this question tells the story about management’s ability to efficiently and consistently control operations and future earning power of the company. This then tells the story about the company’s long-range viability.  Read more...

An article in the wall street journal predicted that as much as 26% of small businesses could go under in 2009. The financial climate will mean that many people will be changing the way they do business. As credit lines tighten, debit cards will soon become the #1 form of retail payment. Debit cards have already surpassed cash in Canada and the US will follow this trend soon.

The credit card companies realize that they cannot charge people to use their own money, not yet anyway. So what they are doing is charging the retailer extra for what is a risk free transaction. Not only do they charge a premium rate but they add a flat rate charge on top of that. 
There are currently 300 million debit cards in use in the USA and an additional 160 million are expected each year. As these cards become more prevalent retailer can expect the credit card charges to increase accordingly. This fact of business life is causing many savvy businesses are changing the way they process these cards.

A study by AT&T Global reported that an ATM is the most profitable footage in any business. The average ATM in a retail setting makes more than $20,000.00 a year. The older ATM machines had several draw backs; they were expensive, needed a dedicated phone line and required stocking with a lot of cash. The cash sometimes attracted a criminal element and require a prudent owner to increase their insurance coverage to cover the additional exposure.  Read more...

There exists hundreds of thousands of unique business opportunities online, the secret is being able to identify your own unique niche where you can be able to compete and challenge the very best in the world. In fact the more unique your venture, the higher the chances of your succeeding.

The most unique online business opportunities are the ones you create for yourself using the tools available online. You must also be able to dominate the market with the business idea that you finally decide to run with.

A useful way to find and identify your unique online business opportunities is to focus on looking for problems that people are facing and then creating a business that addresses those problems. The more serious and nagging the problems tend to be, the more successful and profitable your business idea will end up being. It is useful to always remember that a business is basically a problem-solving organization.

This may sound easy, but the truth is that there is a lot of creativity that usually goes into creating a viable business out of problems that you have observed or identified in your prospects and possible clients.

One way of making the whole process much easier and at the same time guarantying traffic to your site once it is established is to rely heavily in keyword research. That is by using online tools for researching popular keywords like Overture. You can then simply select the important keyword phrases that your unique online business opportunities will address.  Read more...