Jumpstart Your Business

• Try to negotiate longer terms for your Accounts Payable (e.g. increase a 30 day window to 60 days)
• Bill customers more quickly (just a couple of days help) so you can speed up the collection process which improves your cash position significantly.
• Schedule accounts payable on a weekly basis to avoid late charges or double billing.

S. Always work on a project that is very clearly defined or specified.

M. Make sure that you understand what you need to achieve so that you can measure your progress.

A. Never work on projects where the outcome cannot be attained or achieved.

R. Is the project realistic. Is it relevant to the overall business? Are the proper resources assigned to this project.

T. Have you set a time limit or schedule for completion of the project.

If you have done all of the above, then you are working SMART.

Never listen to your customer. Just tell him/her what you’re going to tell him/her. Tell it to him/her. Then shut up and watch him/her squirm.

Don’t try to figure out what makes him/her think. Who cares. Just get the money.

Always cover every feature of your product and the associated benefits. He/she has to understand all the things they’re getting for the price.

If he/she doesn’t say anything you’re home free. They are just getting ready to sign the order.

Check out this link building strategy. Now if you can follow the beat and use the rhythm while you are linking, you can also be having fun.

Starting up a small business is a daunting task. it requires certain personal traits and clearly, not everyone is suited to become a business owner. There are many ways to fail, and here are 10 of the most obvious ones:

1. A business plan is a waste of time. Why plan when things change so quickly. I’ve always flown successfully by the seat of my pants.

• Target a specific market segment and draw up a customer profile of the population in that segment that will most likely buy your product.
• Understand how to represent your product to the average customer in your new segment in language they understand.
• Have a search engine optimized web site that can draw in traffic to pages about your new product.

OPM (other people’s money) is something that entrepreneurs ought to take very seriously. Always use it instead of your own. Here is a good example of not only using other people’s money but being very creative and smart about doing so:

Jamaican gets a bank loan

A young Jamaican man walks into a bank in New York City and asks for the loan officer. He tells the loan officer that he is going to Jamaica on a vacation for two weeks and needs to borrow $5,000.

Working Capital or the measure of a company’s ability to pay off its short term debt is the difference between current assets and current liabilities.

There are two fundamental ways through which a business can be financed: debt financing and equity financing.

In debt financing, money is borrowed to be repaid over a fixed period of time, generally with interest. Debt financing may be short-term (repaid in full in less than one year) or long-term (repaid in full in more than one year). The lender derives no ownership interest in the business and the business has no other obligations except full repayment of the loan. Personal guarantees are normally required for small businesses and therefore personal credit history becomes very important.

In equity financing, money is exchanged for a share of ownership in the business. So the business raises funds without incurring debt and has no obligation to repay specific sums at specific milestones. The ownership interests of the principals may become diluted and their control can eroded especially as additional investors are added.

There are several major types of equity investments for a small business:

Whether you’re a male or female entrepreneur looking for a partner for your startup, here are the 5 top reasons to ignore this potential female partner like the plague: