Month: October 2012

Do you Need a Business Credit Card for your Small Business?

The short answer to this question is no, you don’t NEED a business card. But consider the fact that most companies don’t operate without one, and also consider the fact that there are various benefits of having a business credit card for your small business. Some banks even offer credit cards tailored specifically for small businesses! Here are a few reasons you may want to consider getting a business credit card:

1. You’re business will be perceived as more legitimate.

There’s much symbolic power that comes with having an official business credit card. This holds true both for the people you do business with, as well as with your own sense of identity as a business. When you use a business credit card instead of a personal credit card to charge business expenses, your business will have an added sense of legitimacy and professionalism.

2. Business credit cards offer rewards specifically tailored to small business.

Just like with personal credit cards, business credit cards offer certain rewards as you accumulate points. However, business credit cards have rewards that are tailored to specific business needs. For example, business credit cards offer airline miles, discounts for business services, as well as discounts for business equipment.

credit card
Image by Dennis Kim

3. Business credit cards can help you tremendously with business expenses.

As you probably know by now, running a small business entails having various different business expenses each month. If you pay for them as you go, you’ll soon find that your ability to purchase items and services necessary to run your business will be quite limited. With a business credit card, you can charge all your business expenses to the card, and pay off the balance at the end of the month, enabling you to improve your cash flow. Just be sure to stay balanced and ALWAYS pay at the end of the month to keep from incurring fees and paying added interest rates.

4. You can more easily keep business and personal expenditures separate.

For me, this is the best reason to get a business credit card, especially if your business is very small. For those of us who own small, one-person businesses, it can be tempting to put all your business and personal expenses together. However, if you use a business credit card for all business-related expenses, you’ll be able to file taxes for your business and make tax deductions much more easily.

Now that you may be considering a business credit card, you may be wondering which card is best for your business. Be sure to do as much research as possible.

Good luck!

About the Author: Stella Walker is a freelance writer and business owner. She enjoys giving advice about credit cards, personal finance, small business strategies, and debt reduction. Stella welcomes your comments below!

Do You Need a College Education to Own a Business?

Is it necessary to study? If you want to be well prepared for a lifetime, you need to study. Yet, this is not about simply attending school; you need to do your own effort. You must attend conferences, workshops, etc.

Many options are probably going around in your head. Should I study something that interests me or something that will give me money? Should I work or go for both? Is it possible to stretch my time? These are common questions that disturb many individuals. This leads to indecision, frustration, etc. Enough said, read on and make a wise choice.

college grads
Image by Will Folsom

Several factors and aspects

While there are many aspects to consider when trying understanding such conflicting situation and many other large and complex issues, you can start one step at a time. Some aspects need special focus; you may start treating some points that consciously or unconsciously weigh heavily in this sense of indecision and dissatisfaction about your future. It is not only about education, it is linked to many levels of youth.

On the one hand, in recent years, the primary and secondary education system may not be fulfilling the idea of its main function, which is to guide students to decide on their future. Teachers should take control and give the tools to undertake this process. Channeling student interests is a priority. Experts must help every individual decide how to proceed once it is time to enter the next level of education.

Structure and overall content

The structure and content of the learning activities should be determined to provide all children, youth and adults with the skill, knowledge and values they need to survive, to improve their quality of life and to participate fully and responsibly in the life of their communities and nations, to give impetus and properly adapt to all sorts of new and unexpected situations and continue to gain knowledge, according to their particular interests, tastes and needs. For the previously mentioned facts, many students do not know what to study or wish to start a business without studying. Not to mention, those students who do not know what they think about a career, how this will change them or if they should go from one career to another.

In turn, another crisis of education as an institution is its lack of credibility and quality. Note that studying still involves a lot of effort, determination, perseverance and honesty. Yet, this doesn’t mean you will get a job. Do you want to be someone in life or rather be the best entrepreneur? This is the same, you can do both. It also depends on your approach and on external factors; the economic sphere is intertwined with top knowledge.

In short, education is considered an economic hub and not really a vital need to develop a better society. This is a mistake. This is a key point. Dare to become a better person by being well educated. The rest will flow. Your business opportunity will take place.

Author Bio: If you are writing a persuasive essay, Ann P. from SolidEssay.com, a college essay writing service, will be able to instruct you on how to do it properly.

Living the Solopreneur Life

You have a great idea for business and you decide to strike out on your own. But your dream isn’t to build a conglomerate with hundreds or even thousands of employees. Your dream is to work for yourself. Becoming a solopreneur is the way to realize your dream of going into business for yourself.

Independence

When you are a solopreneur, the vision for your company is your vision. You don’t have to run each idea by a board of directors or gain the approval of stockholders. If you don’t like the direction your company is taking, you can change it.

While you may need to appeal to customers or clients to gain their business, you choose the means and strategy that you employ to do so. In fact, you even choose which potential clients or customers you choose to target. If for some reason certain customers or clients become more trouble than they’re worth, you can drop them without the need to justify your decision – except to your bottom line.

solopreneur
Image by Mikael Altemark

Flexible Schedule

A common misperception is that solopreneurs snooze until noon and lounge around all day in their jammies once they’ve made it out of bed. Anyone who actually works as a solopreneur knows better. In fact, one danger facing many solopreneurs is that they are nearly always working.

Nonetheless, one of the great advantages of becoming a solopreneur is the freedom to dictate your own schedule. Of course, you need to be accessible to customers or clients, but your actual work schedule is your own. If you need or want to take time out to run an important errand or just enjoy a beautiful sunny afternoon, you can do that, without making up an excuse to your boss.

Making It Work

It may seem ironic, but every solopreneur needs help to make his or her life work. Going it alone in business doesn’t mean doing it all by yourself. Knowing when to get help is one mark of a savvy solopreneur.

If you’re a writer and savvy about the web and social networking, it may make sense for you to create and maintain your own website and social networking presence. On the other hand, if you are a nutritionist, your time and efforts may be better served by concentrating on attracting and keeping clients – and contracting with a professional web designer and one or more social media experts.

Clerical tasks may be another area where delegation is a wise strategy for a solopreneur. Virtual assistants can take care of tasks ranging from writing correspondence to maintaining your schedule. Contracting the services of a virtual assistant need not involve paying someone full time; many virtual assistants have several clients for whom they only work a few hours per week.

Isolation is another problem faced by many solopreneurs. Find an organization that addresses the type of work that you do and attend meetings and networking events. Take your computer to a coffee shop or to the library to work for a morning or an afternoon. Take advantage of the flexibility and freedom of working solo to meet a friend for lunch or surprise your partner with a romantic dinner.

On the other hand, you may also need to be firm with family and friends who believe you’re freely available to run errands for them. Kindly but firmly remind them that your working hours are just as important as their time in the office or at school. Sweeten the message by reminding them that the sooner you’re finished with your work, the sooner you can enjoy their company.

For Further Reading

  • The Five Rules of Solopreneur Success
    inc.com/marla-tabaka/the-5-rules-of-solopreneur-success.html
  • How to Become a Successful Solopreneur
    chasethepaper.com/2011/how-to-become-a-successful-solopreneur/
  • International Virtual Assistants Association
    ivaa.org/
  • Three Strategies to Help Solopreneurs Tackle the work/Life Tug of War (and Enjoy More Life!)
    selfgrowth.com/articles/3-strategies-to-help-solopreneurs-tackle-the-worklife-tug-of-war-and-enjoy-more-life
  • What Is a Solopreneur?
    freefrombroke.com/what-is-a-solopreneur/

About the Author: Guest post contributed by Stacy Pruitt, a freelance finance writer. Stacy writes about entrepreneurship, advanced trading and forex indicators.

Why Do Savings Matter?

Saving for a rainy day is a lesson we learn from childhood; when we grow up and earning we always want to save some part of our earnings for various reasons. Life is about enjoying the things money can buy but sensible living 9is about providing for yourself and your loved ones in future, with this end in mind we must adopt the saving habit.

If you are still wondering why savings matter then here are some pointers to help put things in proper perspective for you; here’s why you need to save and that too save regularly…

An Emergency

This is the most obvious and prominent reason why you need to save. Setting money aside to tackle an emergency or an unforeseen situation as and when it arises will help you deal with it better. Having to worry less about money when trouble strikes is the good thing about being in any bad situation. It could be anything…losing your job, meeting with an accident, sudden illness, business losses, savings are the buffer against the impact that an emergency has on you.

While any emergency throws you off balance simply because it catches you off guard, having enough funds to cope with it is important.

Saving for Your Retirement

No matter how long you intend to work, retirement is bound to happen one day or the other. It means having to deal with life without the regular steady income that you were used to and balancing your needs so as to maintain a decent lifestyle, equivalent to if not better than what you enjoyed during your working years.

You might also need to add some amounts which you will require post retirement especially if you don’t retire young…amounts towards medical expenses and routine health checks, both of which are necessary to be in good shape physically and mentally.

Realizing Your Dreams

Yes, your savings are the means with which you can realize your dreams…whether it is your dream car, that vacation you always wanted to take or that dream home you always aspired to own. If you have a goal that you want to achieve then saving regularly will help you take a cruise or travel at least once a year. It might also help you buy that condo or villa and yes race around in that sports car. Every aspiration of this type calls for money and that begins with saving.

Reskilling and Education

The economic downturn that has been upon us since the year 2008 or so was the time that many people active in the workforce realized the importance of getting an education or adding a skill to their existing skill sets. Saving some part of your regular income to add to your qualifications in the biggest investment you can make…investing in yourself to meet the demands of the new job market.

So what are you waiting for? Empower yourself today with a savings plan to suit your needs and meet your expectations. Look at easy access savings for example and start saving today!

Business lessons that are not taught in business schools

I have huge respect for these smart and suave MBA guys and believe me that they are the smartest people I have ever met in my life. But I hate when I am being told that you need to have an MBA degree in marketing to be able to be a successful entrepreneur. Yes, the MBA course does include some topics on how to build a profitable brand, what mistakes that you should be avoiding while promoting a brand and others interesting things but what I still believe is that these are not just enough. Theoretical knowledge can help you land on a good paying job but running a business is a different ball of wax altogether. You need to have practical experience and you need to make mistakes just to learn from it. This is the kind of knowledge that you may not find in your MBA syllabus. Here in this article, we are going to share the business lessons that many business owners have learnt the hard way:

business school
Image Source

Do not stick to a single business plan always: Since we are living in a society where the perceptions of people are changing faster than the speed of light, you should embrace agile marketing. Your marketing plan should be as flexible as possible. If you stick to your business plan just because you have some emotional attachment with it, you are making a great mistake. I have seen innumerable companies that started as something but eventually emerged as something else. Now, would they be able to make it that large had they stuck to their business plan? I had great doubts on it. So, you need to change with the changes of the market in order to survive.

kindle
Image Source

Create your niche: I know how tough it is for you to make your mark felt as a newcomer when the market is already overcrowded. Since we are still in a recession, it is all the more difficult for a business owner to make his place secured. So, the only way out is to create your own market. Remember how amazon.com took a huge risk when they launched Kindle. There were not many takers in its early days as people were new to this concept. They educated people, taught them how to use it and now they are the market leader in the ebook reader niche.

Rebrand to Explore More: It is really tough for a company to launch and market a product which is not directly aligned with their existing brand image. This will lead to unnecessary confusion and therefore, it makes sense if you split your brand and create two different brands so that people can relate to the product and the company easily. But this is by far the most difficult part. As you are going to split the company, you are going to need double manpower, and have to invest double amount for marketing purpose.

Do not take your customers for Granted: This is another common misconception that is ruling the minds of marketers. They believe that they know everything about the market and their targeted audience. And they launch the product without doing any kind of market survey and eventually found that either there is no such demand of their service or the demand is far beyond their expectation.

It is not just big, it is all about the Brand: Just having large number of employees working under your banner does not necessarily qualify you as a big company. You are here to build a big brand and not a big company. Google does not have a large number of employees; rather they have a comparatively small team of highly efficient and motivated people. So, focus on creating a big brand rather than creating a body shop.

Author Bio: Michael Evans is a passionate writer and he is currently associated with http://www.insidershostreview.com/.