Free accountancy software from Quickbooks
Intuit QuickBooks Simple Start Free Edition 2010 – The FREE bookkeeping software solution for small businesses that want the basics. It’s so easy to use, it will give you back your time. You’ll spend more time growing your business and making money, not bookkeeping.
* Track sales & expenses for up to 20 customers
* Instantly create invoices, pay bills, & print checks
* Organize your finances in one place, tax ready
Click here to download.
Free Resources
Free accountancy software from TAS
TAS BOOKS Basic is perfect for start-up and small businesses. It’s simple and straightforward to use and helps you keep track of the cash. It shows you at-a-glance how your business stands – who owes you money and who you owe money to.
Download for free - click here.
Free Resources
KashFlow online accountancy software – free, no obligation 60 day trial.
The difference between the multiple award winning software and other accounting software products is simple: KashFlow was designed by small business owners, to be used by small business owners.
Click here for your trial.
Free Resources
Protect Your Ideas*
Click on the image above to find out more about software to help with your business planning
Build it, then sell it
People often ask if they can sell an idea for a new product or service to a company that will implement it. But ideas that can’t be protected are worth relatively little. I don’t mean necessarily legally protected, but at the very least, protected with marketing momentum, image, and awareness.
Relatively few of the well-known successful start-ups depended on the ideas. What matters is doing it, starting it up, getting it done. For example, when Apple Computer started in 1976, thousands of people had the same idea. Altair and MIPS were already producing. Every hobbyist club in the country talked about it in their meetings. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, however, did it. They found the resources, contracted people, took the risks, and started it up.
There are plenty of good examples. Was Federal Express patentable? No, but they did it. Look at Amazon.com—it was a good idea, but very copiable. In that case they knew they had to move fast and gain visibility very quickly to pre-empt competition. McDonald’s?
There are companies whose main advantage is the idea. Kodak, Polaroid, and Xerox are examples, but these are exceptions, not the rule.
By the time you’ve had a good idea, so have hundreds or thousands of others.
So how do you approach a large company with a good idea? I say, simply, don’t; not until you have momentum. Sure, some ideas need larger companies to move them forward, but if your idea is that good and not legally protectable, why shouldn’t the big company move on it? Managers are charged with enhancing the value of the company they work for, and you’re saying there’s no patent, so why not? They aren’t bad people, it’s just that you don’t own the idea.
Besides, larger companies move very slowly, and unless you’ve proven the idea and developed the concept, it’s even harder to think they’ll do it better.
My advice is to build some advantage first, develop this idea, bear down, and make it work. After that, then you will have something to sell. Even without patents, you could have trademarks, service marks, and legal protection against people trying to trade on your company’s name and trademarks.
Think of it from the buyer’s point of view, for a while. Which would you rather buy, an idea, or a business? Turn your idea into a business that works, with sales and employees and a market position, and then you have something to sell.
Remember that there are almost always people proposing ideas to large companies, and you’ll have to make sure the contact in the company understands that you might have something that’s very worthwhile. It’s hard for me to think you can do that without building it first, then selling it.
Think about what it is you own that they would need your participation for—perhaps it’s your expertise or name in an industry.
*Disclaimer. NB these articles are for informational purposes only. They are not designed to be used as a substitute for legal advice.
Free Resources
Funding Circle for lenders and borrowers – an alternative to banks
Small businesses in the UK are under the stranglehold of the major banks who charge them high interest rates and fees for borrowing. According to HM Treasury the top 4 highstreet banks make up 92% of total small business lending by the banks – with such a concentration of lending in just a few providers small businesses have limited finance options, and can’t access bond markets like larger businesses. Small, local businesses are also the unsung heroes and driving force of the UK economy employing 60% of the private sector workforce and generating 50% of our GDP. We need these businesses to be thriving and growing.
Watch the video below to see how Funding Circle works.
Read more here: http://www.fundingcircle.com/home/about-us/
Free Resources
How to get a bank to give you money by Helen Loveless
The debate over lending to small businesses shows no sign of ending, with David Cameron a few weeks ago announcing he would ‘force’ the banks to lend.
The Prime Minister’s pledge came in the week that Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds TSB, HSBC and Barclays all reported half-year results that showed a return to huge profits.
HSBC, the first to report, posted half-year profits of £7bn while Barclays’ gain was £3.9bn. Lloyds Banking Group reported profits of £1.6bn while RBS made £1.14bn. Lloyds and RBS are part-owned by the taxpayer.
Read full article: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/work/article.html?in_article_id=511504&in_page_id=53928
Free Resources
Influence Mapping – How to Sell to Corporates
INTRODUCTION
We have all worked in large organisations and the larger they are, the more a knowledge of the internal politics and unofficial communications systems is of value in surviving and making progress.
For people outside the organisation who are trying to get things done within the organisation, the situation is twice as bad because they not only have to figure out the official hierarchy and communication channels, but also the unofficial ones.
Most good sales people develop an instinct for how to learn the politics of a client organisation, but once they get beyond a certain size it is very difficult to be properly effective unless you practically live in the client organisation and this is particularly so if your interaction with the client needs to be of a complex or widespread nature.In the 1960s IBM came up against this problem in a big way in trying to sell their large computer systems into large organisations, where the supply of a new system fundamentally affected dozens of sectors of both the official and unofficial decision making structures.
This is where Influence Mapping was born.
Multi level contact occurs quite naturally between two large organisations that do business together, but IBM was the first to see the value of managing and co-ordinating this interaction rather than just letting it happen and of doing a forensic job of mapping how all the interactions and influences worked. In particular they became masters at managing the interface between the techies, who understood the product and the management who did not, but had the decision making responsibility.
The legend that “You never get fired for buying IBM” was one of the bits of marketing genius that came out of this and successfully kept other suppliers with better, more innovative and cheaper products out of their market for a long time. Influence mapping is about mapping out the personnel terrain, understanding its dynamics and most importantly, identifying the key “opinion formers” and planting the seeds with them that will create the image of your supplying organisation that is required. Whether we have the time, patience and dedication to do this in our relationship with any other mega client – and whether we can make it worth while is a matter for debate.
THE INFLUENCE MAPPING PROCESS
Defining the Influence Requirements
As regards a business advice practice for example, we need to write down a set of actions we want the prospect organisation to take, or opinions we want them to have, such as
o Feeling that consultancy in general is added value to what they do.
o Actively recommending us to clients
o Recommending us to colleagues
o Asking our advice etc
The Organisation Map
We need to build an organisation chart. It needs to show not only who reports to whom, but also what each key person is responsible for and how influential they are in influencing the delivery of our needs as specified in above.
People Classification
We need to classify each individual (or sometimes group of individuals) as to the type of contribution theymake to the influencing and decision making process, in terms of things like
o Are they a decision maker?
o Or an Influencer?
o Or an opinion former?
o Or combinations of two or more?
o What do they influence the most (in our field of view)
o Whom do they influence significantly?
o Who are they influenced by?
o What formal decision making group(s) are they in, if any
o What opinion forming group(s) are they in
o Who are the informal group leaders, or opinion formers in their group
The Network Influence
It is rare that a complete set of everything is assembled at any one time. However, after a reasonable part of the above data is assembled, a pattern will emerge that can be mapped, showing in a dynamic form how decisions are made and influenced, how opinions are formed and “nodes” will appear showing where the key people and groups are that influence opinions, decisions and actions
The Strategy
A reasonably coherent network diagram, even if partly complete, will begin to show clearly where and on whom our efforts need to be expended to maximise the result we are looking for, what type of information we need to present to whom and how we have to manage the players with more minor roles.
Free Resources
Will Your Business Survive in a Downturn?
A challenging time for business can be the best time to secure your long term future and prosperity. It is even more important to be smarter than your competitors.
If one company takes action to respond to the situation and one company just hopes for the best, who is the most
likely to survive and be ready for the upturn?
If you want to do nothing and hope for the best, don’t read on. You will have plenty of time for reading when your competitors manage the downturn better.
So where to start. Take a look at the world around you and assess the risks. What is the effect of a downturn going to be on those areas that affect your business:
Sales & Marketing – Redouble Sales Effort
Sales are the lifeblood of your business but a lot of MD’s/Owners do not like the sales side of business and rather let it happen. Not anymore. Good salesmanship is not actually that difficult. It is mostly common sense – know
who is buying and not buying. Talk to the ones who have not placed an order this month and understand why.
Is there any fundamental change likely in their buying pattern?
Do you know how much share of business you have with each of your customers?
Can it be increased?
It is much easier to get business from existing customers than capturing new ones. Are there some obvious customers who you do not trade with?
What about an action plan to start a dialogue with them?
Is your service good?
What can you do better?
Examine your pricing. When did you last increase prices? You may have to find the courage to put prices up but if you don’t – Are there some low cost marketing actions that you can do?
Websites are not expensive and can replace expensive and quickly out of date brochures.
ACTION STEPS
- Put a Sales & Marketing Plan together now
- Review your pricing strategy
- Sell, Sell, Sell
Operations & Resources – Doing the right thing, efficiently
When times are good we all get into a “nice to have” syndrome. Things get added because we think it might make life easier or better. In tough times decide what is really essential and what can be done without.
Look at your headcount. Make a 10% headcount cut part of your contingency plan. Usually there is someone whose performance is not satisfactory but the issue has not been tackled. If they need to go, should you start the process of removing them anyway? Make sure you use an HR Specialist to help with this. It can be done but has to be done correctly.
Often things can be made simpler and better. Time for radical thought. Look at how you’re doing things and see what can be done to improve effectiveness and efficiency.
Usually the people doing these things know most about them. So if you have staff involved in these activities get them involved too. Set up improvement teams. Give the projects titles and make a fuss of them. Review them regularly. Do it now while you still have the luxury of time and cash.
Communicate with your staff, management team, customers, suppliers and other stakeholders to keep them informed of what is happening with the business.
ACTION STEPS
- Review your staffing- consider outsourced services
- Reduce inefficiencies and waste in your business
- Implement good, operational business processes
Finance – Cash is King
Cashflow has to the number one priority. If you run out of money the business is dead and all the hard work you have done is down the pan. And maybe your house with it! So do you know your break-even? Do you do a monthly cashflow forecast for the next 3 months?
These are two essential measures of the health of your business. If you do have them, we would recommend you start to do them right away. Most businesses know their costs base pretty well and what orders their customers are likely to place in the next month.
Forecasting sales for months 2 and 3 can be more difficult. Moving annual totals come highly recommended to cover the future trends in sales. You will quickly spot the turning points when sales go flat and subsequently start to turn down.
Clearly if the sales trend is down and approaching your break-even you need to take action. If you are not in this situation you should at least have a contingency plan to reduce costs. You also need to know how long these are likely to take to come into effect. It takes time to reduce costs. Your cashflow forecast can be used to see how this works.
Review your credit control processes. Do you get a signed order for everything? Do you get proof of delivery for goods? Make sure you have processes in place to follow up quickly with late payers.
ACTION STEPS
- Review your cashflow now
- Look at cost reduction and where savings can be made
- Focus on getting money in that is owed
Conclusion
The old adage “failing to plan is planning to fail” is so apt for recessionary times. So start as you mean to go on.
It’s easy to make lists, much harder to actually make things happen.
If you’d like some help with this give us a call and we’d be delighted to help. You’d be surprised what can be achieved in a short space of time.
And how much more gets done with regular review dates with us to help you make sure that you really do implement your action plan.
Free Resources
Meetings, Bloody Meetings
Meetings Bloody Meetings
“Meetings are a waste of time. I’m just too busy to spend time in meetings. I’ve got too much work to do”. Sound familiar? And when I hear this I often do see people flying around frantically fire fighting, often getting lots of interruptions and not being at all sure where they are going. Does that sound familiar too?
I like to think of meetings as gaining leverage for myself. Making sure that people know what I am trying to achieve and helping me forward. Likewise I like to know what others are trying to achieve and helping them forward. This way I cut down on my interruptions and know I will have a focussed discussion with my colleagues…so I don’t need to interrupt them and hopefully they don’t interrupt me.
Its not that I’m anti interruptions – what I call corridor conversations. There will always be the unexpected and that’s fair enough. Its just that I’d rather be better organised than that and have my mind clear to discus important matters when my mind is really focussed on the topic, rather than in the middle of five million other important things I am trying to achieve.
So what are the constituents of a good meeting?
o A leader. All teams need leaders. Leadership styles need to change with the situation. In the middle of a crisis we need a dictator – just ****** do it. But more often it is someone who can set up a discussion, draw in different opinions and only then conclude. It may be a good idea to rotate the leadership of a meeting – it helps people develop and enables them to run meetings as they think they should be run. It also helps them understand that running meetings is not as easy as they might think – which might make them more supportive at the next meeting!
o A plan: The meeting needs to know its direction. How long the meeting is going to take, what we are going to discuss. Too often meetings try and boil the ocean all at once. Provided I know that the topic is coming up in the meeting I don’t need to bring it up in the middle of another topic. It is the role of the leader to manage this plan.
o Minutes: These are a useful way of asking people to discuss the issue outside of the meeting – or to do something. It enables the meeting to move on and not get bogged down in the detail. They are also a good reminder of what was agreed.
How long should a meeting last?
My view is that anything more than two hours is beyond my concentration level. If it needs to be more than that then there should be a scheduled break. That way people stay focussed and therefore effective. It can be very useful to make it clear that the meeting will last no longer than a certain time. This can be achieved by telling people that we will stand up at a certain time. It is amazing how much more quickly meetings go when people are standing up!
How often should a meeting take place?
For management teams my view is that we should meet once a month on a rhythm that fits the business – the third Thursday of the month is quite a good time. However in some situations that require tighter management, once a week is effective – first thing Monday morning, or Friday morning. These become more tactical meetings dealing with day to day issues. I find them more effective with junior staff, less necessary with experienced staff or teams.
How to deal with follow ups.
How do you get people to do the actions that they have agreed to in a meeting? Its no good leaving it to the next meeting to review whether people have done the actions they agreed from the last meeting. I have found it effective to re-circulate the minutes a week before the next meeting. Instead of Portrait I set them up as Landscape with another column for people to record what they have done with the action. All I am really looking for is “done” – or an explanation on progress. If people haven’t done the action they are often reminded to do it before the meeting – if nothing else to avoid the embarrassment of saying they haven’t done it. Once everybody has commented the completed follows up can be re-circulated prior to the meeting. If people still haven’t done their action by then I have found that they will now try to get it done.
But what if they still haven’t done their action?
This is where the leader has to step in and deal with the individual on a one to one basis. There is probably some more fundamental problem that needs addressing. Maybe they are struggling with their work load – and maybe not delegating effectively – and maybe they need help with running their own meetings.
Team briefing.
Once the team meeting is over, it can be a good idea to make sure that the key messages/ decisions are communicated onwards. Often those who attend important meetings don’t realise their responsibility to pass on information at their own team meeting. A written brief may be the most effective way of doing that – or sometimes the minutes can be a useful reminder.
Do get the minutes out quickly.
I have always favoured quick and cheerful rather than slow and 100% accurate. Fundamentally minutes are there to remind people of what they agreed to do.
What do I do if some people can’t attend?
My view is that the meeting should run anyway. From time to time people can’t attend. However it may be important to deal with persistent offenders on a one to one basis.
One to one meetings
There is a place for a regular team meeting and there is also a place for a regular one to one session with each direct report. I recommend setting two hours aside in your diary each month for each person that works for you – just as you do for the team. This is a more flexible date between two people. My view is that it is flexible, but must happen sometime. So either person can change the date but must organise another time.
I find the one to one session is much more personal. However I do the same things as in a team meeting – plan what I want to cover, take notes, review actions. It is much more of a mentoring role, particularly with senior staff. It enables me to get buy in to my plans; it enables difficult issues to be discussed in a calm way; I often use it to get the staff member to set their own goals and targets – which means I have their buy in to the way forward right from the start.
In my experience I have found that if I have these two types of meeting running each month I am left alone for the rest of the month to get on with my own work. It reduces the level of interruptions and instils a sense of order. It enables more forward thinking which in itself prevents some of those crises.
Meetings, bloody meetings? I wouldn’t be without them!
Free Resources
Wake Up – Your Customer’s Speaking
Have you ever felt really peeved when a supermarket decides not to sell an item that you’ve tried from their store, liked it, and then incorporated it into your general shopping requirements? Or perhaps an own-brand item from a pharmacy that is not only cheaper than anything else on the market but also does the job so much better, and then the pharmacy decide to withdraw that product? Or maybe you’ve put yourself out to support a local farm shop and buy much of their produce which isn’t particularly competitive but nice quality and their home cured ham is exceptional, well worth the 20 mile trip every now and again, and then that shop replaces their home cured ham with ordinary supermarket ham at the same price?
If the answer to any of the above questions is YES then you will be among many thousands of shoppers who feel they have been let down by a company that they have supported.
Many big companies especially seem to have lost touch with their customers and actually treat their customers with contempt and really couldn’t care less about individual customers; the bottom line profit figure is the only thing that counts.
If a supermarket takes off its shelves an own-brand item that is popular with the local community because it is not producing as much profit as a well known brand, it will start to alienate its customer base; particularly in the supermarket business, there is a lot of competition around, and it only takes a few customers to become disenchanted with a supermarket they use and start trying out one or more other supermarkets, before the profits start to fall from the original supermarket. They will tell their friends about another supermarket and before long a small trickle of exiting customers becomes a stream.
A similar sort of thing has happened whereby big corporations have thought that they were being so clever by saving a lot of money by outsourcing certain services, for example call centers, to countries with cheaper wage bills; in the short term this policy does appear to be good, but what about the customers?
Pretty well anyone that you talk to will say that they get confused and frustrated when dealing with foreign call centers, not for any racist reasons but purely because most people at the foreign call centers may be able to speak their language pretty well but they still have a difficult-to-understand accent and they are not aware of the way of speaking, mannerisms, humor, etc in a particular country. It is pretty well universally agreed that people in call centers should be brought up and educated in the same country as the people they are supporting. Many banks in the UK are finally waking up to public reaction to call centers.
So these corporations using foreign call centers will eventually become losers, big time, when one or more of their competitors realize that satisfied customers are the corner stone of their business and that if their business is built on a shaky foundation of bottom-line profits, then a small tremor in public feeling and awareness could bring their whole corporation down.
via UK Business Advisors Ltd | UKBA – Wake Up – Your Customer’s Speaking.
Free Resources
