3 Essential Tools for Starting and Maintaining a Small Business

We believe that there are 3 factors that drive the success of small businesses.

1) Acquiring start-up capital
2) Finding customers
3) Accounting for, budgeting and controlling sales and expenses



The following resources will help your small business achieve these success factors.

Acquiring Start-Up Capital


An adequate supply of capital is essential as many profitable businesses fail because they don’t have enough cash to pay their employees and suppliers. But what is an adequate supply of capital? The only way to tell is by doing a significant amount of research on your potential market and formally documenting this in a business plan. I’m sure you know that a business plan is a very important document that is crucial to convincing your banker to lend you money.


There are two ways to obtain a business plan.


1) Do it yourself by amending a business plan template, or
2) Hire a professional to do it for you.


Obviously obtain 1) will be a great deal cheaper.


Our research led to a website that has over 60 high quality and free business plan templates. We also found a directory that you can use to easily find a business plan writer in your city – where ever you live in the world.


Finding Customers


Finding customers is a difficult and expensive task for service business owners such as accountants, lawyers and plumbers. We believe that a cost effective marketing strategy for service business owners is to simply give all their personal contacts a few business cards.


Our research led to a few websites that have pre-designed business card templates. We felt that the diversity and quality of these designs was outstanding. In addition, we found that you can obtain a significant saving by finding a printing service on the Internet. We found that you could get 2,000 full color business cards for as little as US $150.


Accounting For, Budgeting and Controlling Revenue and Expenses


Accurate accounting is very important for small business owners. It’s essential that you have timely access to information that could make or break your business. If stocks are running low – you need to know about it. If a large proportion of your debtors haven’t paid – you need to know about it. If you do not react to these situations quickly you may have a situation where you don’t have enough money to pay your employees – or worse still someone is stealing cash out the till.


Our research led to a website that compares and reviews top accounting software for small businesses. The cheapest software cost US $89.99 and the most expensive software cost US $1,499. It was interesting to note that the top 3 ranked websites were not the most expensive and cost between US $250 - US $300.


Hopefully you now have an idea of some of the tools that you can use to grow and maintain your small business. If you would like to benefit from our research please visit our website. We do not charge for this research and offer the content freely on our website.


About the author:
http://www.best-quality-small-business-resources.com/

Ryan Hough is the webmaster of best quality small business resources.com, who's aim is to help you save time and money by finding reviews and case studies that will enable you to choose the best resources at the right price.

10 Businesses: Will Your Business Be the One Winner Or Part of the Nine Losers?

A business coach is a person who helps you grow personally and professionally. A business coach bridges the gap between where you are now and where you want to go. If you want to expand your business and want to set high goals, your business coach can help you in achieving, what you want with some advice and encouragement. Business coaches work with entrepreneurs, executives, managers and employees to motivate them and accelerate business process with their professional skills, knowledge and experience, thus helping them to achieve the goals of the organization. Business coach not only addresses business issues and processes related with business, they also focus on the personal desires, needs, characteristics and goals of the individual. A business coach helps business owners to learn the tips and tricks of business, expertise of delegating more work to managers, motivating employees and achieving business goal with optimum utilization of limited resources. The coaching gives encouragement, motivation, and accountability to the business owners and helps them to achieve maximum out of their life.

A business coach helps in following ways:

• Provides quick solutions to your problems.
• Facilitates process of learning techniques and ideas.
• Offer customized solution to specific personal needs of business owner.
• Helps in drawing business goal and providing direction to achieve goals.
• Provides techniques of maximum utilization of limited resources.
• Concentrates on the important issues of the business.
• Provides efficiency to business activities with minimum wastage.
• Cater to personal needs of business owner.
• Leads to a productive, happy and satisfied business and personal life of business owner.

Thus a business coach provides solutions to all problems of business owner. A business coach sorts the communication problems at different levels of the organization and helps in running business at optimum level, with business skills and knowledge. A business coach redefines goals; breaks down the goals in small chunks and works scientifically to achieve them. A business coach paves the path of success for business by helping realise its full effectiveness.

Learn more about the advantages of executive coaching:
http://www.hjventures.com/executive-coaching/Business-Coach.htm

About the author:

Howard Schwartz is a partner in several business strategy groups, including HJ Ventures International, Inc. Howard has worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs worldwide with a focus on writing Business Plans for companies interested in raising capital from Venture Funds and Angel Investors. Howard’s business plans have secured several million dollars in funding. For more information: http://www.hjventures.com/executive-coaching/Business-Coach.htm

Trading exec linked to Moriya arrested

Tokyo prosecutors Thursday arrested trading house executive Motonobu Miyazaki, the man at the center of the scandal involving former Vice Defense Minister Takemasa Moriya, for allegedly embezzling more than ¥100 million.

The prosecutors suspect the 69-year-old former managing director of defense equipment trader Yamada Corp. engaged in unlawful accounting and conspired to misappropriate Yamada funds to found rival Nihon Mirise Corp., investigative sources said.
Also arrested was Tomonari Imaji, 57, who allegedly conspired with Miyazaki while serving as Yamada's former operating officer to forge business documents that favored Nihon Mirise.
The investigators plan to quiz Miyazaki about his alleged cozy ties with Moriya, who has admitted accepting paid golf outings from the executive more than 200 times while serving as the top defense bureaucrat, the sources said.
In sworn Diet testimony last month, Moriya also admitted that politicians, including a former Defense Agency chief, were with him during the wining and dining sessions sponsored by Miyazaki.
Moriya is suspected of performing favors for Yamada and Nihon Mirise regarding the procurement of jet engines made by General Electric Corp. of the U.S. Moriya denied this in the testimony.
Miyazaki is suspected of embezzling some ¥117 million last year from Yamada's Virginia-based U.S. subsidiary Yamada International Corp., part of which was used as funds to set up Nihon Mirise, the sources said.
Miyazaki allegedly issued the instruction to Osamu Akiyama, a former president of Yamada International, the sources said.

Prosecutors have obtained an arrest warrant for Akiyama, who is currently in the United States, and are asking him to return to Japan, they said. After Miyazaki set up Nihon Mirise, Akiyama joined as a board member.
The pair are suspected of cashing checks made out as remuneration for board members of Yamada International, transferring the money to a bank account of Akiyama, and depositing it into another account to raise a slush fund.
The sources said Yamada International had been providing slush funds since at least 10 years ago, and the cumulative amount may have reached several hundred million yen.
Miyazaki left Yamada in June 2006. Around that time, he allegedly arranged the transfer of ¥117 million from the subsidiary. As at least ¥30 million of that amount is unaccounted for, prosecutors suspect he might have used the money to set up Nihon Mirise in September 2006.
Miyazaki is also suspected of rewriting part of a sales representative agreement between Yamada and a U.S. agent in July 2006.
With the alleged rewriting, he is believed to have tried to sever business ties between Yamada and Avex Aerospace Corp., and form contracts between the California-based agent and Nihon Mirise.
Nihon Mirise said Monday that Miyazaki bowed out Nov. 1 for "personal reasons."

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